March 19, 2010
Google TV: Google, Sony, Intel Team-Up to Make Television
Engadget
Charlie Sorrel writes about Google TV, which is a project that’s supposedly in the works with Google, Sony and Intel.
“Your next TV could be a Google TV, made by Sony and powered by Intel chips. The three companies have teamed up to build what will be called the Google TV, essentially a big-screen living-room computer. The TV project, according to the New York Times, is still under wraps, but that hasn’t stopped the details from leaking. The GTV will be based on the Android OS, and come in the form of both a set-top box and actual TV-sets. There will be regular television, of course, but also Hulu, YouTube and other Web-video sources, as well as games and apps for social networking.”
Internet Explorer 9 Shows Up Faster, But Still Lacking
Webmonkey
Scott Gilbertson writes about Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 Web browser.
“Microsoft has announced more details about Internet Explorer 9 the next version of the company’s much-maligned, but still dominant Web browser. The highlights for IE’s update include much-needed performance improvements, hardware acceleration for graphics, as well as support for a number of new HTML5 elements and CSS 3 features. Based on what we’ve seen at this stage, IE9 is much, much faster than IE8 thanks to improvements in IE’s rendering engine. IE9 will also include a new JavaScript engine that puts the browser on par with script performance in Safari 4, Chrome 4 and Opera 10.5. Although all four other browsers are still marginally faster, IE 9 eliminates one the biggest gripes about IE 8 – it’s dog slow.”
iPhone OS 4.0 software specs multitasking plans
Computer World
Nick Mokey writes about iPhone’s uni-tasking approach.
“Rumour has it that the iPhone OS 4.0 software specs include support for multitasking. Such plans would mean that not only core Apple apps would be run-able in the background. Nick Mokey ponders the process: ‘The challenge for Apple engineers will be to unchain this … functionality without compromising security, reliability, or making the interface more confusing. Despite the drawbacks, the iPhone’s uni-tasking approach to apps has also lent it an air of simplicity and ease that Apple risks losing.’”