Culminating in a party at San Francisco's Rickshaw Stop last night, the biggest Web browser publisher from Norway--also, the only Web browser publisher from Norway--kicked off a number of beta versions. Opera 9.5 beta 1 and Opera Mini 4 beta 3 were made public yesterday, introducing a heap of new features.
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Googling on the iPod--the stuff of legends.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com)This morning, Apple unveiled the iPod Touch, this year's latest must-have gadget that's the first bona fide iPod to have built-in Wi-fi, the Safari Web browser, and the YouTube app iPhone owners have come to love. That's not the most groundbreaking aspect, though--this thing's got a full version of the iTunes Music Store that you'll be able to use for shopping right on the device. You can preview and buy songs that will sync up to your iTunes library when you plug it in back at home. The idea is similar to the Music Gremlin, and the Sandisk Sansa Connect, except you're getting the added benefit of Apple's entire online catalog.
Also groundbreaking is the inclusion of Apple's Safari Web browser, which features the same functionality you get on the iPhone. For enterprising Web app creators, this is huge. The iPhone's somewhat prohibitive price point (even after this morning's $200 price drop) and two-year service agreement with AT&T limited many from purchasing the device. Despite this, the explosion of Web apps that have been built specifically for the device is staggering. Companies have become so enamored with the idea of a special iPhone version of their site, it's becoming nearly as prevalent as building a Facebook app.
Despite the inclusion of YouTube, there are two mysteriously missing apps from the iPod touch. The Google Maps app, and the Mail app, which gives users first party support for popular mail services like Gmail, Yahoo, and AOL mail. Between the two, the mail app is the more important in conjunction with Safari, as users will have to use two separate windows and their favorite Web mail client to actually e-mail someone in Safari. The experience on the iPhone is a little more seamless, with the device simply opening up a new message in mail.
The iPod Touch is shipping later this month in 8 GB and 16 GB capacities at $299 and $399, respectively. More news about it can be found on Crave's live blog post.
Nintendo Wii owners who have been enjoying their updated Web browser can now enjoy a special version of Google Reader designed exclusively for their Wii remotes and TV screens. Google has made the text a little bigger and changed the interface from a two-pane look to a simple feeds list.
One big change regular Google Reader users are bound to notice is the updated control scheme. To jump between feeds just hit the "1" button, which pulls up a slick looking pop-up with a listing of all your feeds. It's almost an easier system than the one Google currently uses. Also changed are keyboard shortcuts. Google Reader users on the PC are used to 24 shortcuts; Google has simplified things down to 8 to compliment the somewhat limited Wii remote.
To give the Wii version a spin on your computer's Web browser, click here.
[via ZDnet]
To pull up a listing of your feeds, just click the 1 button on your Wiimote.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
Microsoft announced Deepfish , a new mobile browsing technology from itslabs group. Deepfish is a small, downloadable application for Windows Smartphone users. The app presents Web content the same way you'd see it on your computer's Web browser. If you've seen the mobile version of Apple's Safari on the upcoming iPhone, then you have an idea of how Deepfish works.
Deepfish is designed like an array of photo thumbnails. To zoom into a section you want to see in more detail, you just select it with a "magnify box" controlled by your phone's directional pad or pointer. If you want to zoom back out, the original version of the page will still be loaded in your phone's memory cache--which should save a considerable amount of time (and data usage).
In our brief hands-on with it today, we noticed a few quirks.... Read more
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