Chrome Web Store a gift for developers, a sea change for users |
- Chrome Web Store a gift for developers, a sea change for users
- Mundu Radio brings Shoutcast to Android
- Ad-Aware 9 Free First Look video
- Google shows Chrome notebook, Web Store
- Google's Chrome Web Store open for business
- The Daily Show app: Everything but full episodes
- Add-on offers Gmail-like UI in Thunderbird 3.3
- Internet Explorer 9 to get tracking protection
- Adobe issues Lightroom 3.3, patches Photoshop
| Chrome Web Store a gift for developers, a sea change for users Posted: 07 Dec 2010 05:20 PM PST The Google Chrome Web Store, which went live today, is a big gift to Web developers: it's a marketplace, like Apple's iOS App Store and Google's Android Market, that lets developers put their apps in a place where users and buyers are likely to be looking for them. It also collects money on developers' behalves.
 Google's new Web Store. Looks like Apple's App Store, but the terms are very different. (Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)Unlike most of the apps for iOS or Android, developers don't really have to program a new app for the Google Web Store to get it into the market. Especially in this early stage of the store, many of the "apps" are nothing more than Web sites--just as free as the sites you get to by typing a URL, and in many cases just as unexciting. But the store does give developers a new avenue to put their best Web work into a well-organized market, and it also goads developers to work on building HTML5 apps for the Web-centric Chrome OS Netbooks, which are expected to arrive in mid-2011. Apps you buy in the Chrome Web Store will be waiting in your account if you should get one of those Netbooks in the future. While most of the apps currently in the Web Store are nothing more than Web links, some, like the Gilt shopping app and the ESPN sports photo viewer, feel and run like actual installed apps of the iPad variety. Set Chrome up to run in full-screen mode and you'll not know the difference. Google store a nonprofit?
 The Web Store lets developers charge for apps in a few different ways. (Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)Since Chrome apps are really just Web pages, they should be able to work in any contemporary browser. Indeed, some of the apps I tested, including the very slick New York Times app, worked fine in Firefox (Sports Illustrated and Gilt did not). But Chrome enables some functions that won't work in other browsers. In particular, you can't buy an app except in Chrome. And you cannot "install" an app, since the Chrome start page on which the store installs its icons doesn't have a standard programming interface. Upson did say, however, that Mozilla is working on an open standard for installing apps, and in conversation loosely implied that Google would either contribute to this effort or adopt its final spec. Another big difference from Apple (and Microsoft) Web stores: There's no pre-approval required to put an app in the store. There are guidelines, and Google may remove apps that violate these guidelines or that the community votes off the island, but basically, anyone can put anything online for at least a short while. This is how Google's Android Market works, as well. Where's my cloud-based hard drive? I hear the developers of online storage services (perhaps Facebook's Dropio team; or Dropbox) have been working on a system for this, but as Upson told me, "building a unified anything is hard, and in many cases counterproductive." Aviary's Michael Galpert says that, at the moment, setting up app-to-app communication for moving files around works acceptably well, but he is looking forward to a solution that's more consistent for users.
 Our Cr-48 notebooks arrive this week. (Credit: Google) A real threat to the old model Originally posted at Rafe's Radar |
| Mundu Radio brings Shoutcast to Android Posted: 07 Dec 2010 04:24 PM PST  For Android users who like the overall vibe of good, old-fashioned terrestrial radio but would prefer not to cart around a separate device just for the pleasure of listening to ad-riddled FM, there are several solutions in the form of apps. One is Mundu Radio, a free app that packages Shoutcast specifically for the mobile platform. The Internet radio giant is served by several third-party apps for the Android OS, but Mundu is one of the better-looking options available. Fire it up, and you're taken to a simple home screen with four main options: listen, discover, favorites, and settings. It's easy to search for specific Shoutcast stations or find new ones using the discover feature, which lets you search by artist or genre to match you with a selection that might suit your tastes. There's also the option to browse by seemingly innumerable genres, subgenres, decades, and styles of music, as well as by the country of origin for the broadcasts. Of course, if you have specific Shoutcast stations in mind, you can enter those directly as well as save them as favorites. However, the favorites functionality could use some work, as it's a laborious process to enter broadcasts for bookmarking. Mundu Radio requires that you type in station names and URLs yourself, rather than just find by search or browse and then have a menu option for saving the station. Sound quality isn't spectacular either, but that's really a limitation of Shoutcast, not Mundu. Also, the banner adds are somewhat annoying, though expected given the fact the app is free. All in all, Mundu Radio for Android is a solid option for users of the OS who are looking for an easy way to enjoy Shoutcast radio on the go. Some of the functionality could use some work, but the overall look of the interface is nice and, again, it's free, so worth checking out. Originally posted at Android Atlas |
| Ad-Aware 9 Free First Look video Posted: 07 Dec 2010 03:25 PM PST The free version of Lavasoft's Ad-Aware 9 marks the launch of two new detection engines and some performance tweaks that make it faster. Check out CNET's First Look video, and whether you're a longtime user or new to the program, let us know what you think about it in the comments below. |
| Google shows Chrome notebook, Web Store Posted: 07 Dec 2010 01:24 PM PST SAN FRANCISCO--The Chrome OS hardware Google promised in July of last year is still not ready for prime time. But if you're a developer or an eager early adopter, you're in luck. At an event today here in the city's Dogpatch neighborhood Google showed us the not-yet-finished hardware that will run Chrome OS. It's called CR-48, and it's not much to look at: a plain, black, unbranded notebook that companies and individual users who are accepted into Google's pilot program can use.  Google unveils a prototype Chrome OS notebook called the CR-48. (Credit: CNET )The actual Chrome OS notebooks that normal people can buy, from Samsung and Acer, are delayed until mid-2011. When Google initially pitched the idea last year, it said we'd be seeing them right about now. But we did learn about a lot of features we'll eventually see in the hardware when it does arrive:
In the department of products that are actually ready for public consumption, today we are getting the Chrome Web Store. It had been previewed before, but it's finally ready to go. The New York Times, Electronic Arts, Amazon, and Citrix demonstrated their apps for an audience of journalists and Googlers here today. The store is integrated with the Google Checkout payment system so you can just click to buy and download apps. Some subscription apps have free trial mode, and some, like the New York Times app, work offline. The Web Store will be ready for anyone to use "later today," according to the event host, Vice President of Product Management Sundar Pichai. It's made to work with the Chrome browser, but it does work with other "modern browsers," according to Google. We also got an update on Chrome browser features:
CEO Eric Schmidt stopped by for a few minutes near the end of the presentation to talk up Chrome, specifically noting that he was against it when co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin said they wanted to be in the browser business. Schmidt said he tried to block the project but the co-founders went ahead and hired a team of browser experts that had worked on Firefox. Originally posted at Circuit Breaker |
| Google's Chrome Web Store open for business Posted: 07 Dec 2010 12:35 PM PST
 Google's Chrome Web Store offers a variety of apps for download. Google's Chrome Web Store opened for business today, providing a centralized online marketplace for downloading Web apps for the Chrome operating system and the Chrome browser. The marketplace, similar to Google's Android Market and Apple's iPhone App Store, is designed for Chrome 8, which was released last week. It offers apps, as well as extensions and themes, for customizing the browser. Amazon said it is offering its Windowshop app, a stripped-down version of Amazon.com, on the marketplace. There also is an NPR news app, Facebook Photo Zoom, a New York Times app, and lots of games. The check-out process is integrated with Google Checkout. The Chrome Web Store, which was expected to launch in October, was demonstrated at a Google event in San Francisco earlier today. The marketplace is only available in the U.S., but will expand to other countries early next year. "The Chrome Web Store itself can be accessed using any browser. Currently only users of Google Chrome are able to install an app from the Chrome Web Store, which adds a shortcut on the Chrome browser's new tab page," a Google spokesperson said in a statement. "The protocols for describing and installing apps are all open-sourced and are free to be implemented by other browsers." Updated 2:26 p.m. PT to correct that you do not need the Google Chrome operating system to use the store, 2:07 p.m. PT with Google comment, and 1:10 p.m. PT with more details. Originally posted at News - Digital Media |
| The Daily Show app: Everything but full episodes Posted: 07 Dec 2010 12:25 PM PST  The Daily Show app looks great on the iPhone, but it's even better on an iPad, where it takes full advantage of the extra screen estate. (Credit: Screenshot by Rick Broida)I'm a huge, huge fan of "The Daily Show." It's the single funniest thing on TV, and Jon Stewart is perhaps the smartest guy ever to sit behind a talk-show desk. (The less said about his interviewing skills, however, the better.) Needless to say, it didn't take a lot of arm-twisting for me to grab the new The Daily Show app--especially considering that it's being offered free just for today. (I'm not sure what the price will be as of tomorrow, but we can look for clues in The Colbert Report's The Word, which costs $1.99.) The app offers a lot for rabid fans like me, starting with a shareable quote of the day (and accompanying show segment) for roughly the last eight weeks' worth of shows. Tap the Topics button and you'll see a spinning word cloud (or an alphabetical list if you switch views), with each item leading to handfuls--if not buckets--of clips related to that topic. These appear to date back as far as December, 2009--not the full archives by any stretch, but still plenty of stuff to watch. Thankfully, all videos are commercial-free, at least for the moment. All you see is a brief Capital One graphic before each clip. The Schedule button shows upcoming guests for at least the next few days, and the times each episode will re-air on Comedy Central the following day. (Wow, each one repeats four times. Who needs a DVR?) You can set reminders (15, 30, or 60 minutes) for any selected airing. Finally, there's the Tweets button, which shows not only #TheDailyShow and #JonStewart hashtags, but also the tweets for the show itself and four correspondents (Aasif Mandvi, Olivia Munn, John Hodgman, and Kristen Schaal). What's missing? Unfortunately, the one thing fans undoubtedly want most: full episodes. Great as it is to have access to complete segments (as opposed to, say, 30-second clips), it's not the same as being able to watch an episode start-to-finish. Maybe that will come. In the meantime, The Daily Show app is still a must-have for "The Daily Show" fans, and today's the day to get it--while it's free. Originally posted at iPhone Atlas |
| Add-on offers Gmail-like UI in Thunderbird 3.3 Posted: 07 Dec 2010 11:54 AM PST  If you're looking for a more Gmail-like experience in Thunderbird 3.3 alpha, a new add-on should be able to help you out. Dubbed Thunderbird Conversations, the add-on offers a conversation view in the e-mail program, allowing users to have all their messages to and from another party in one place, similar to Gmail. The app "fetches" e-mails across every folder in the user's Thunderbird installation. Users can reply to an e-mail inline, and access the add-on's "contacts auto-complete" feature to streamline its use. Thunderbird Conversations was first made available at the end of last week, but it was formally announced on the Mozilla Labs blog earlier today. If Thunderbird Conversations sounds familiar to current users of older versions of Thunderbird, there's a reason for that. The add-on is a totally rewritten version of the former Gmail Conversation View, available to those using Thunderbird 3.1. The add-on's developer, Jonathan Protzenko, claims Thunderbird Conversations is "a significant improvement over previous versions." However, he also noted on the Mozilla Labs blog that the new Thunderbird Conversations will only work with Thunderbird 3.3 because it includes "the required support" for the add-on.  A view of Thunderbird Conversations. (Credit: Mozilla)Thunderbird 3.3 alpha was released at the end of November and includes support for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Along with its launch, Mozilla announced that the e-mail program would not support PowerPC-based Macs going forward. Originally posted at The Digital Home |
| Internet Explorer 9 to get tracking protection Posted: 07 Dec 2010 10:30 AM PST  Microsoft this morning detailed changes to Internet Explorer 9's security features that will better enable users to keep sites from tracking their activity across browsing sessions. The feature, which is set to arrive in the first release candidate of IE9 early next year, uses a list to tell the browser which third-party page elements sites can and cannot be blocked from tracking. This includes elements ranging from advertisements to more mundane things like embedded widgets from particular providers. On Microsoft's IE blog, Dean Hachamovitch, head of Internet Explorer development, explained how it works: A Tracking Protection List (TPL) contains Web addresses (like msdn.com) that the browser will visit (or "call") only if the consumer visits them directly by clicking on a link or typing their address. By limiting the calls to these Web sites and resources from other Web pages, the TPL limits the information these other sites can collect. In a Webcast announcing the feature, Hachamovitch said most users have "little awareness of who can track their activity," and that the feature stemmed from that. Hachamovitch also attributed the creation of the feature to the company's more open approach to developing features for IE9.  Microsoft's tracking protection tool gives users control over which site elements can track your activity during a browsing session. Green ones in this shot can, while the red cannot. (Credit: Screenshot by Josh Lowensohn/CNET)Microsoft is letting users and third-parties alike author protection lists and host them on their sites. Users can then download them to their browser. Microsoft has also created lists to resemble what Hachamovitch likened to an RSS feed, so that if additional sites are added or removed, it can be updated without the user having to seek out, or manually update. Hachamovitch said tracking protection will not replace InPrivate filtering, a feature Microsoft added to IE in version 8. Instead, Hachamovitch referred to it as complementary, given that InPrivate filtering uses algorithms to control tracking, along with not persisting from session to session. Tracking protection, on the other hand, will remain on once a user turns it on. Microsoft says tracking protection will not be on by default when it arrives next year. Users will need to opt-in to enable it, as well as seek out lists of sites, which will not ship with the browser once it's released. So far, Microsoft's IE9 beta has been downloaded in excess of 15 million times since its release back in September. Originally posted at News - Microsoft |
| Adobe issues Lightroom 3.3, patches Photoshop Posted: 07 Dec 2010 08:52 AM PST  The Nikon D7000 is among the cameras whose raw photo files are now supported by Adobe Lightroom. (Credit: Nikon USA)Adobe Systems released Lightroom 3.3 that supports 15 new cameras; adds profiles to automatically correct optical problems with dozens of lenses from Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and Sigma; and corrects a long list of bugs. Lightroom, like its top rival Apple Aperture, is geared for editing and cataloging photos, especially those in the higher-quality but ungainly raw image formats recorded directly from camera image sensors. Raw formats therefore must be created for each camera, and though only higher-end models can shoot raw, there still are a lot of new models to keep up with. New to Lightroom 3.3--and to the corresponding version 6.3 of Photoshop's Camera Raw processing engine--is support for these cameras: Canon PowerShot G12 and PowerShot S95; Nikon D3100, Nikon D7000, and Coolpix P7000; Olympus E-5; Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF2 and DMC-GH2; Pentax K-5 and K-r; Ricoh GXR with the GR lens A12 28mm F2.5; Samsung NX100 and TL350; and Sony Alpha A560 and A580. The company also distributed Photoshop CS5 version 12.0.2, which fixes a number of bugs and security problems. To help with the crowdsourcing effort that's under way to provide lens profiles Adobe doesn't support directly, the company also offers a Lens Profile Creator software. It lets people create lens profiles as well as search for and rate others' profiles. Originally posted at Deep Tech |
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