The Khronos Group today released updates to two interfaces designed to make it easier for programmers to tap into the power of computing hardware.

First is OpenSL ES 1.1, an interface for C programmers to use sound hardware on mobile devices. The interface abstracts technologies such as graphic equalizer processing, reverberation or 3D spatial Doppler effects, playback and volume controls, and audio data recording.

The purpose of the interface is to liberate programmers from having to recraft their applications each time a new device arrives with a different, often proprietary interface. Khronos released profiles tailored for phones, music players, and gaming devices.

Second is OpenMax AL 1.1, which provides an interface to video and audio codecs. The AL stands for the specification's application-level interface; using it on supported systems, programmers can write software in a standard way to either read data from input devices such as cameras, TV tuners, and microphones or output devices such as headphones, phone vibration devices, and digital TVs.

The Khronos Group got its start standardizing an SGI-spawned graphics interface called OpenGL that provides a way for software to tap into 2D and 3D graphics chip power without knowing particulars of those chips.

Although Microsoft's DirectX interfaces dominate on Windows, OpenGL is used on Mac OS X and Linux, and with Windows design software. More notably, in the mobile market where Microsoft is comparatively weak, OpenGL ES, the embedded version, is supported both with iOS and Android, making it an incumbent standard in that market when it comes to game graphics. OpenGL ES also is the basis for WebGL, a 3D Web graphics technology supported by four of the top five browser makers--all but Microsoft.

Originally posted at Deep Tech

I'm a closet World War II junkie. I sat rapt through Ken Burns' "The War" and HBO's "Band of Brothers." And I just finished "Unbroken," the mesmerizing, jaw-dropping tale of WWII POW Louis Zamperini. (Seriously, if you read no other book this year...)

So I was very keen to thumb through War in the Pacific, an iPad application based on an eponymous coffee-table book published early last year. And that's the best way I can describe it: a coffee-table book for your iPad.

But you've never seen a print edition like this. The e-book's 20 chapters fill five main sections spanning the years between 1941 and 1945. Each gorgeously illustrated page includes supplemental materials such as photos, secret documents, archival videos, and profiles of historical figures.

In other words, imagine a typical historical tome, but with photos you can zoom in on, a timeline you can view and hide at will, the occasional video corresponding to a passage in the text, a search function, and so on. It reminds me of the multimedia-enhanced "interactive" CD-ROMs of the '80s, but formatted to take advantage of the iPad.

War in the Pacific ($9.99) has two other noteworthy features: animated, narrated maps of each of the five sections, and a three-dimensional scrolling wall of all the photos contained in the book. The latter is pretty cool, though the photos themselves don't zoom to fill the screen--perhaps because many of them are a bit soft to begin with.

My key gripe about the app is that whenever you return to the main menu or open a new chapter, its dramatic musical score kicks in. Much as I like the music, I'd like the option to turn it off--but there isn't one.

Thankfully, the iPad's own volume controls can remedy that. If you have even a passing interest in World War II, I highly recommend this beautifully designed, richly detailed app. It's so good, you might decide to leave your iPad on your coffee table.

Originally posted at iPad Atlas

Underscoring the confluence of technology, politics, and marketing, the World Wide Web Consortium today unveiled a new logo for HTML5.

With the logo, the W3C wants to promote the new Web technology--and itself. The Web is growing far beyond its roots of housing static Web sites and is transforming into a vehicle for entertainment and a foundation for online applications.

The W3C hopes the logo--T-shirts and stickers with it already are on sale--will fuel excitement and interest in the refurbished Web. "In addition to work on the specification, test suites, and useful materials for developers, we seek to raise awareness about W3C technology and to promote adoption of W3C standards," spokesman Ian Jacobs said.

Curiously, though, the standards group--the very people one might expect to have the narrowest interpretation of what exactly HTML5 means--instead say it stands for a swath of new Web technologies extending well beyond the next version of Hypertext Markup Language.

And some Web developers aren't happy about that. Web developer Jeremy Keith wrote today that the W3C just helped push HTML5 "into the linguistic sewer of buzzwordland."

Here's how the W3C put it: "The logo is a general-purpose visual identity for a broad set of open Web technologies, including HTML5, CSS, SVG, WOFF, and others," the W3C said in the FAQ about the HTML5 logo, referring to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for formatting and graphical effects, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) for advanced 2D graphics, and the Web Open Font Format (WOFF) for elaborate typography. "In addition to the HTML5 logo there are icons for eight high-level technology classes enabled by the HTML5 family of technologies. The icons can be used to highlight more specific abilities, such as offline, graphics, or connectivity."

Using "HTML5" to represent technologies well beyond the standard itself doesn't sit well with some developers who see a useful role in more precise terms. Bruce Lawson, an employee of browser maker Opera and co-author of a book on HTML5, has proposed the acronym NEWT--new exciting Web technologies

"Basically: #HTML5 logo = good thing. But disappointed to see CSS 3 conflated into it," Lawson tweeted today, pointing to his rather amusingly theatrical YouTube video about it.

His case was likely something of a lost cause, though, even before the W3C itself offered a logo naming a specific standard to stand instead for a range of technologies. Apple, a company with vastly more marketing skill than most, launched an HTML5 showcase last year that extended well beyond HTML5--indeed it was probably better classified as a demonstration of new CSS than new HTML. There's a reason that marketing types preferred the broad definition of HTML5: it's hard to get people to understand a long series of acronyms from standards groups. And it seems unlikely Apple's promotional experts would get excited about an amphibian.

To be fair to marketing department oversimplifiers, it's hard to keep track just of what the W3C is up to. Web Workers, Geolocation, IndexedDB, Web Sockets--all these are standards that are useful for the next-generation Web but that venture beyond HTML5, strictly defined. https://spinner.cnet.com/post.html?id=20028718&versionId=413456

But Web-development insiders reacted to the logo's broad definition with scorn, or at least raised eyebrows. Keith's blog post is titled "Badge of Shame":

What. A. Crock. What we have here is a deliberate attempt to further blur the lines between separate technologies that have already become intertwingled in media reports...

So now what do I do when I want to give a description of a workshop, or a talk, or a book that's actually about HTML5? If I just say "It's about HTML5," that will soon be as meaningful as saying "It's about Web 2.0," or "It's about leveraging the synergies of disruptive transmedia paradigms." The term HTML5 has, with the support of the W3C, been pushed into the linguistic sewer of buzzwordland.

And there was more carping:

• "Hmm, wow. I'm thinking a new logo representing 'the Web platform in a very general sense' is maybe not really what HTML5 needed the most," tweeted John Lilly, Greylock venture partner and former Mozilla chief executive.

• "CSS3 is now 'officially' part of HTML5," said a sarcastic tweet from Anne van Kesteren, who works on standards at Opera.

• Longtime Web developer Jeffery Zeldman called the logo's broad definition "misguided."

• "Nothing wrong with the #HTML5Logo itself, use it if you want, but including #CSS3 and other bits is just wrong and confusing," tweeted Web developer and HTML5 fan Ian Devlin.

• And HTML5 book co-author Remy Sharp asked, "Let's clear this up, once and for all: does the @w3c intend for 'CSS3' to be included as 'HTML5'?"

Don't expect standardization work at the W3C will lose its ultra-precise wording in favor of loosey-goosey marketing terminology. But do expect W3C to promote its broader agenda in more general terms.

Jacobs said in a blog post that the W3C had begun an internal project in 2010 to create a logo for the "open Web platform"--another more general term for today's constellation of new Web technologies--but put it on hold. Today's HTML5 logo came instead from design firm Ocupop, which according to creative director Michael Nieling was developed with all the Web technologies in mind:

The term HTML5 has taken on a life of its own; there has been significant confusion and debate both within the developer community and in the public at large as to what exactly HTML5 is when the term is used outside of simply referring to the spec itself. This variability in perception is what inspired the project--a group of developers and HTML5 evangelists came to us and posed the question, "How can we better communicate all of the technologies and potential that HTML5 represents?" ...and the resounding answer was, the standard needs a standard. That is, HTML5 needs a consistent, standardized visual vocabulary to serve as a framework for conversations, presentations, and explanations moving forward...

Nieling himself said, though, that the designers don't get the last word about what exactly the logo means

"I am confident that we've provided a very clear and effective baseline of vocabulary for HTML5," he said. "The syntax and ultimate meaning is up to the community."

Updated 7:41 a.m. PT with more reaction against the broad definition of the new logo.

Originally posted at Deep Tech

If you don't quite need the sweeping feature set (and steeper price tag) of bigger-name text editors, BareBones software's TextWrangler is a free but still impressive alternative. This versatile text editor lacks the extensive Web-authoring capabilities of its big brother, BBEdit, but TextWrangler still delivers many useful text-wrangling capabilities above and beyond the basics, like spell-checking and unlimited undo/redo. This latest update fixes bugs for a smoother user experience.

Also this week we have the latest version of Audio Hijack Pro, the software that lets you record and add effects to any audio streamed through your Mac. Our game this week is Defenstar, a side-scrolling shoot-'em-up game made with classic arcade shooters in mind.

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