Google's Android platform may only command 8 percent of the marketshare, according to Apple CEO Steve Jobs in his keynote speech at WWDC 2010.

But if you let the burgeoning number of Android smartphones in the market, Motorola's commitment to Android phones, and the fact that Sprint stores sold out of the Android-powered HTC Evo 4G guide you, Android is on fire and rocketing toward the top, even in the face of the forthcoming iPhone 4.

With that in mind, it's time we once again rounded up our top picks for getting started on a brand-new Android phone. Or, if you've already got one in hand, see how your picks line up with ours.

We'll just mention that our Android Starter Kit is but a mere sampling of excellent software we find the most useful to the broadest range of  Androidites. It's by no means exhaustive, and we're sure you'll fiercely defend your favorites. So go ahead, if you have a must-have app that didn't make it into the list, share away in the comments.

Originally posted at Android Atlas

Browser development can be a risky place, even for a team of savvy, crowd-sourced enthusiasts. So it's no surprise that Mozilla calls their nightly Firefox build "Minefield." What is surprising is that, in general, today's version tended to be fairly stable.

The version I spent the day with, Firefox 3.7 alpha 6, offers multiple in-development improvements. Besides being built on the next version of Firefox's rendering engine Gecko, the current nightlies will eventually become Firefox 4, expected to be released later this year.

For right now, though, the nightly builds are a rough work in progress. Broad support for HTML5 is expected in Firefox 4, and support for the HTML5 audio and video codec WebM debuted just last week in version 3.7 alpha 4. For those curious to test it out, Google has posted a way to try out any WebM-enabled browser for yourself. There's also a build for 64-bit computers, a new version that Mozilla has only recently begun working on.

The nightlies also offer hardware acceleration. One way to tell if the Direct2D hardware acceleration API is working is to go here and try to resize the photos in your browser. If the change occurs smoothly, then according to a developer's blog, it's probably working.

Mozilla intends its next-generation plug-in architecture to debut in Firefox 4, but it hasn't appeared in the nightlies yet. Called JetPack, it was originally designed as a separate Mozilla labs add-on, but is now only available as an SDK because Mozilla changed direction with the JetPack architecture. It will basically give Firefox a Chrome and Safari-style add-on network, based on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and more agile than the current one.

What has made it into the nightlies, though, is the new about:add-ons. There's not much there so far, but it does represent a radical departure from the previous add-ons management window. It also marks Firefox joining the movement towards keeping browser configuration pop-up windows to a minimum, as there are new in-window sidebars for History and Bookmarks, as well. Opera and the WebKit browsers Safari and Google Chrome have been steadily moving in this direction for some time.

Other noticeable interface changes include a big orange button in the orange left corner that conceals most of the menubar options. In the current build, it's labeled "Minefield," but mock-ups for version 4 show that will change to "Firefox," most likely when the alpha builds are ready to graduate to beta status sometime in the next few months.

Folding the menubar into a single button is nothing new, showing up in Opera's refresh earlier this year most recently. Meanwhile, Chrome has done away with the menubar entirely. The debut of Google Chrome and its minimalist interface in September 2008 kicked off more than just a browser speed war; it also forced interface designers to reconsider how much of the browser needed to be visible. For Minefield users who aren't ready to abandon their menus, though, tapping the Alt key will toggle revealing the familiar format.

Minefield's interface isn't quite as minimalist as Chrome or Opera, yet. It still ships with Status bar turned on at the bottom of the browser, and it also ships with the browser titlebar intact. It does include the option to move your tabs to the top of the browser without requiring an additional extension. Speaking of extensions, most add-ons are not compatible with Minefield. For some, this is because their max version number is set lower than the current Minefield build. For others, there are serious compatibility problems that will prevent the add-on from functioning properly, or seriously decrease the stability of the browser. Add-ons such as Nightly Tester Tools and MR Tech Toolkit can force add-ons to be compatible, but you run the risk of a significantly less-stable browser.

Minefield's performance is just as subject to change as the rest of the browser. The version I tested, 3.7 alpha 6, was incompatible with the Mozilla-designed benchmark test Dromaeo and kept freezing when trying to run the full test. On the SunSpider JavaScript test, the browser scored an average of 682.6 milliseconds on a 32-bit Windows 7 Lenovo T400 laptop, running on an Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 at 2.53GHz, with 3GB of RAM. Firefox 3.6.4 release candidate 1 notched an average of 924.6 ms over three cold runs, about 25 percent slower. Currently, that would place Minefield at around twice as slow as Google Chrome's developer's build, which has been clocked around 350 ms on SunSpider. It's unclear at this point whether Minefield incorporates Mozilla's planned update to the JavaScript engine, a combination of their in-house TraceMonkey engine and parts of Chrome's V8 engine code-named JaegerMonkey.

Meanwhile, it's not clear that the out-of-process plug-in protection technology code-named "Lorentz" will debut in Firefox 3.6.4. Although it has been included in the 3.6.4 beta versions, it looks like a potential security risk is holding Mozilla back. They may wind up releasing a security fix for the hole and then retest Lorentz with the fix in place. Lorentz will be included in Firefox 4, as well.

Despite the relative stability I experienced when testing Minefield, it's definitely not something for casual users to play around with because of the ever-present potential for data loss in the browser. If you are looking to expand your comfort zone, playing around with Minefield is a relatively safe way to begin experimenting with developer's previews of upcoming software advances.

With the enormous popularity of Apple's iPhone, more and more people are switching to Mac desktops and laptops to get the full Mac OS X experience. But as the popularity of the platform reaches unprecedented heights, Macs are beginning to be targeted by malicious attacks, often in the form of drive-by Web site attacks. This means that your Mac could download malicious code just by visiting a questionable Web site.

AVG LinkScanner for Mac (exclusive to CNET Downloads today) protects your computer from malicious threats by providing a shield against dangerous Web sites. This free program has no option to upgrade or tries to sell you anything--all AVG LinkScanner does is provide a line of defense against threats that are sure to come with the Mac's growing popularity.

Apple's launch of Safari 5 made it final: the marketing people have snatched the term "HTML5" away from the developers.

HTML5 is the next version of the Hypertext Markup Language standard for creating Web pages. The standard has lain fallow for a decade, but passionate, persistent developers resuscitated it with new features ranging from built-in video to 2D graphics.

But there's a reason a minority of the population knows how to program: it's complicated. So it's no surprise that when it comes time to pitch a product, the marketing folks step in with the tasteful packaging to make it all comprehensible.

In Apple's case, it was an HTML5 demo page. There have been plenty of such pages before, and there will be plenty more to come, but few in the tech world are up to the caliber of Apple's marketing staff. Apple's HTML5 demos offer swirling iPods, tasteful typographic technology, elaborately transforming photos, and other eye candy.

Hackles raised
Apple lending its marketing might sounds like a dream come true for developers who'd spent years struggling to make the case for HTML5, right? Umm, not so much.

Apple's programmers with the WebKit browser engine project that underlies Safari have been among the HTML5 allies, but Apple's marketing staff evidently are less collegial. Apple's site blocked other browsers, with the following message:

You'll need to download Safari to view this demo.

This demo was designed with the latest Web standards supported by Safari. If you'd like to experience this demo, simply download Safari. It's free for Mac and PC, and it only takes a few minutes.

It doesn't quite say that other browsers don't support HTML5, but it most definitely is a marketing pitch for Safari.

It should come as no surprise to see Apple touting its products, but the way it did so raised hackles.

"Apple's messaging is clearly meant to say, "Hey, we love the Web," but the actual demos they have and the fact that [they] actively block other browsers from those demos don't match their messaging. It's not intellectually honest at all," complained Mozilla evangelist Christopher Blizzard in a blog post. "It's unfortunate, and I guess inevitable, that browsers would compete on how much HTML5 they are bathed in."

Bruce Lawson, who has long touted HTML5 at Opera, was better-humored if not any happier, calling Apple's site "hilariously disingenuous." Adds an Opera colleague Haarvard Moen, "When the page doesn't work in Opera or other browsers it isn't because these browsers don't support HTML5."

Those who agree with the critics might put themselves in Apple's shoes for a moment, though.

Sure, the site is for promoting Safari. But beyond that, it's also meant to show off various browser features, not to check how well one browser or another supports them. It's a demonstration for the mainstream, non-tech-savvy audience Apple aspires to shield from technical complexity. The last thing Apple wants is for the demo to look bad or broken on some noncompliant browser, and blocking others besides Safari accomplishes that. The more of the technology a company controls, the easier it is to keep the bugs at bay, a lesson Apple knows well from Macs and iPhones.

There are nits to pick with Apple's site, of course. The words "You'll need to download Safari to view this demo" falsely implies other browsers wouldn't be able to handle the demos, not that Apple was simply not letting them in. I had no trouble with the demos using Chrome, for example, though it shares some of Safari's WebKit lineage.

For those who want to try out the demos without Safari, a developer version of Apple's HTML5 demo site has somewhat lower barriers to entry. So Apple didn't completely try to sweep the true complexity of Web sites and Web browsers under the rug.

What exactly is 'HTML5'?
The Apple demos embody a second indication that the marketers have seized the HTML5 label, though: Strictly speaking, many of the demonstrations aren't actually of HTML5.

Web developers have been debating what "HTML5" actually means for months: Is it just a single specification, or does it include other technologies, often related and certainly being used at the same time on advanced Web sites?

Here are some Web changes that aren't part of HTML5, technically, that often are lumped in by those using the term broadly:

Geolocation, which lets the browser tell a Web site your physical location, is part of HTML but not HTML5. There is faster JavaScript. There is the Scalable Vector Graphics standard, years old but newly relevant with Microsoft IE9's forthcoming support. And perhaps most relevant, there is the Cascading Style Sheets standard, which features prominently in many of the Apple demonstrations.

And then there are the Web technologies that don't have universal buy-in. There's IndexedDB to let Web applications store data locally on a computer--but Apple backed a different horse for that concept. There's WebGL, for 3D graphics on the Web, but Microsoft has yet to express anything like enthusiasm for it. And perhaps the best-known example is the actual encoding technology used within HTML5 video: Apple and Microsoft prefer H.264, while Google, Opera, and Mozilla prefer the new WebM from Google. Should these fit into the HTML5 catch-all term?

Remember also that some of the competition can be summed up in five other alphanumeric characters already: Flash. Adobe Systems' plug-in may be loved by some Web developers and loathed by others, but it's unquestionably a model for a lot of what is happening with Web standards. HTML5 fans, if they get riled up by this snarky "jump back in time with HTML5" site showing how many years earlier the Apple HTML5 demos could have been shown with Flash, might want a convenient "HTML5" banner to rally around.

For programmers, precision is useful, and "HTML5" is becoming steadily more imprecise. But when trying to impress the world with a paradigm-shiftingly awesome change, being bold, grand, and sweeping can be more effective even if some bits end up in the wrong buckets. HTML5 is a lot more convenient a placeholder term than HTML and a litany of alphabet soup, and it's clear that right now, the world craves a convenient placeholder.

We've seen this before. Ajax, for example, outgrew its narrower roots to stand for Web sites with fancy user interfaces. But sometimes it's OK to let the marketing people appropriate a term. If you were a Web developer, which would you rather have: the precision of standards language, or momentum that unites programmers, browser makers, and ordinary people in support of new standards?

Originally posted at Deep Tech

If you're looking for a low-cost alternative to expensive Web design suites, look no further than Coda from Panic Software. This one-window Web design app has all the tools you need for creating great Web sites including FTP features from Panic's popular Transmit software.

Also this week, we have the latest update for 1Password, the program lets you securely store passwords for all your Web log-ins. Our game this week is Land Air Sea Warfare, the strategy game that lets you build thousands of units and witness ultimate carnage as you send in your troops.

Don't forget to check out our iPhone apps of the week!

You think you know what a minefield is, but regard it the way that Mozilla does. Each night, the Firefox team produces a series of tweaks that may one day become the next version of its popular Firefox browser. Numerous tiny iterations, even daily adjustments, aren't anything surprising in the software development world, until you remember that Firefox is an open-source browser whose daily progress anyone can track, whose nightly builds anyone can download.

Considering Firefox's now-widespread use, there is enough risk with instability that for even the die-hard enthusiasts in the Firefox development community, there's always a chance that a nightly build could blow up. Welcome to the aptly-named Minefield. CNET Editor Seth Rosenblatt tiptoed strode through it, touring the features that may be to come.

Meanwhile, as the world of desktop computing continues to converge with the world of mobile handsets, it's undeniable that Google's Android platform is continuing to pick up speed and sophistication, especially as some smartphones, like Sprint's HTC EVO, gain dimensions that make it easier to perform desktop tasks. With that in mind, we've updated our Starter Kit for Android users. If you're thinking of picking up an Android smartphone for the first time, or are on the lookout for new apps, check out some of the picks we find the most universally useful.

If you're not hopping on the Android bandwagon yet, don't feel bad. We've got iPhone and BlackBerry users covered, too.