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Mobile Game Devs Cutting Back on Android Investment

Pulkit Chandna — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:42:38 -0600

As one of the leading developers of games for mobile phones, Gameloft wields considerable clout. The France-based games developer has decided to cut back on the development of games for Google's Android platform just like other developers. According to Gameloft finance director Alexandre de, the Android Market is not all that conducive to paid applications.

He revealed that his company sells "400 times more games on iPhone than on Android." But with the number of Android-based phones growing with each passing day, it will be difficult for games developers to completely ignore the platform. However, there are a lot of issues that Google will have to address, if it wants Android to be taken seriously as a games platform.

Image Credit: Erenumerique.fr

Youtube Pulls the Plug on Set-top Streamers

Bart Salisbury — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:11:40 -0600

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye: to YouTube’s API access. From now on, it’s through the front door or you’re not getting inside.

The word comes from Syabas, the maker of the Popcorn Hour set-top box. They, along with pretty much every set-top box maker, used YouTube’s API access to video’s which provides a neater integration to video than the regular Flash-based web interface. Besides better video, advertisements were also avoided. Good deal all around.

But no more. Google has changed the agreement for using API access--which it has a right to do. Google has decided to cut off access, except perhaps to a few of the powerful set-top makers, like Sony or Nintendo. Could be Google has figured out a new way to generate revenue, which certainly wasn’t coming from those who skipped the ads.

Final farewells take place on December 2.

Image Credit: wu.peng/Flickr

Google Adds Automatic Captioning to Some YouTube Channels

Pulkit Chandna — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:56:35 -0600

Google is striving to make YouTube friendlier for deaf and hard of hearing people. It today announced the launch of machine-generated automatic captions. But it has chosen to limit the technology to a few YouTube channels for now.

The auto-cap feature has been built on top of the YouTube caption system, and uses the same speech-to-text technology as Google Voice. Though the auto-cap feature is only meant to work with English-language speech, it is possible to automatically translate these automatically-generated captions to 51 different languages.

Another new feature has been added to YouTube in the form of "automatic caption timing." Captions are created using the transcript (text file) uploaded by the user. Google's automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology helps ensure that each word hits precisely the right mark on the timeline, making it easier for users to manually create captions.

"Each of these features has had great personal significance to me, not only because I helped to design them, but also because I'm deaf. Today, I'm in Washington, D.C. to announce what I consider the most important and exciting milestone yet: machine-generated automatic captions," Google engineer Ken Harrenstien wrote in a post on the Official Google Blog.

8 Things You Need to Know about Chrome OS

Will Smith & Norman Chan — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:00:12 -0600

Google pulled the wraps off of Chrome OS today, and while there isn't a general availability announcement today, they spoke briefly about the Chrome browser (Linux and Mac versions due this year, along with support for extensions) before diving into the nascent OS. You can expect to see Chrome ship in about a year, and showed the first glimpses of the new OS, details about the architecture, the hardware it will run on, and gave us the first hints about what the Google Cloud OS will really look like.

Here's why Chrome OS won't be replacing Windows anytime soon.

Chrome OS is a hardware platform as well as an OS

Chrome will have very specific platform requirements. It won’t run on machines with physical hard drives, only SSDs. Only certain Wi-Fi chipsets will be supported. Chrome OS will also have requirements for screen size, a full-sized keyboard, and a decent sized touchpad. They demoed Chrome OS working on an eeePC today, and said that you'd be able to upgrade some netbooks on the market today using a screwdriver.

Google didn't announce hardware specs, but confirmed that Chrome OS will work with x86 and ARM-based machines, and is designed with the 802.11n Wi-Fi spec in mind.

Chrome is Open Source

Chrome OS uses code from Linux, Webkit, Ubuntu, and Moblin. It's based on what seems like a heavily modified Linux kernel. While there's no beta announcement today, the code is open source as of today, so people can download and work on the code, as well as contribute submissions back to the project.

The Chrome Browser is the Primary Interface

If you've used the Chrome browser, Chrome OS will look very familiar to you. There is no conventional Desktop, so to speak. The browser window is your web interface, file explorer, and web app launcher. You can open multiple Chrome windows (think multiple desktops), each with their own set of tabs and swap between them from an even zoomed out further desktop.

Data is Stored in the Cloud

While the user can save data locally, whether it's photos, videos, etc, everything in the user's /home folder is synced to the cloud. The local copy is just a cache, presumably to allow you to use the netbook offline or where there's poor Internet. This is very similar to the thin clients that Sun pushed in the late 90s, in that there are relatively slow computers with ubiquitous network connections that rely on the Internet for most of their usability.

When you use any Chrome OS device, you log in and all of your data is there immediately. This means that presumably you log into your Chrome machine using your Google account. Of course, the big question is what happens when Google's servers go down. How accessible will your data be when you're away from the Internet for a few days?

Chrome OS uses a New Security Model

Because the Chrome browser is the OS, users don't have access to the root folders of the machine. You won't be able to install applications on the OS, but there will be a plugin/extension architecture, presumably that works with extensions similar to the Chrome browser.

The OS kernel and browser will be digitally signed, so the OS will be able to check itself at boot. (Web apps won't require digital signatures.) If it detects something amiss, it will simply restore the affected areas of the OS, leaving your home partition alone. The OS will also automatically update at launch, during its verified boot.

Chrome OS is for Secondary Computers

Google doesn't anticipate Chrome OS being used on your desktop PCs (at least, not yet). Dual-boot will not be possible, and it won't work with your third-party peripherals that use non-standard drivers. Keyboards, mice, and USB hard drives will work, but it's extremely unlikely that you'll be able to sync your iPhone with Chrome OS. They say that they'll have a novel solution for printing in the future.

Chrome OS Runs Web Apps Exclusively

We've said it before, but we'll say it again now. The only native app for Chrome OS is the browser. There's no mail application, no control panels, no application launcher outside of the browser. The OS is the Chrome browser--anything you can run in the Chrome browser runs inside that. Google showed web Excel from Microsoft and specifically mentioned Yahoo and other providers during the demo. Anything that runs in the Chrome browser on Windows, will run on Chrome OS. All of the applications you'll run on Chrome OS are web applications.

During the Q&A Michael Arrington explicitly pointed out that this strategy exactly mirrors Steve Jobs' comments during the initial iPhone launch. The response? The iPhone has native apps, Chrome OS only has a browser.

Chrome is more like a TV than a Computer

It's instant-on, cold booting in about 7 seconds, and on the desktop about 3 seconds after that. This is why they're using a unique platform, so they control the hardware and software and can get performance and experience they need.

Here's Google's over-simplified explanation of Chrome OS:

Image credits: Gizmodo and Google

Google Explains Chrome OS in this 3 Minute Video

Norman Chan — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:30:28 -0600

This morning, Google gave the first public demonstration of the Chrome OS they announced earlier this year. We'll have a full recap of the presentation later today, but Google has also released a 3 minute video explaining the basics of their netbook-targeted operating system. The basics: Chrome OS is Chrome web browser, built on top of a Linux kernel, which only runs web apps (ie. primarily used when you're connected to the internet). And it's being designed with specific hardware specs in mind.

Update: Here's everything you need to know about Chrome OS!

Stay tuned for our recap of the Chrome OS presentation.

Is a True Google Phone on the Way?

Paul Lilly — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:58:03 -0600

The dust hasn't had a chance to settle on Motorola's Droid, but that hasn't stopped the Android camp from looking ahead to the next hyped up handset that could, once again, prove to be an iPhone killer. So what has the Android community giddy with anticipation? The Dragon/Passion (and something else, but more on that in a minute).

According to Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch, HTC's upcoming Dragon/Passion will be much thinner than either the Droid or iPhone, and as of a couple of weeks ago, it's been the smartphone of choice among senior Android guys at Google. Pat yourself on the back if you sensed a caveat, because unlike the Droid or G1, this one won't ship with a physical keyboard.

But there's even bigger news in the Android camp. Perhaps tired of waiting for a handset maker to develop that must-have smartphone capable of socking it to Apple's iPhone, Google is apparently building its own branded phone, or so Arrington claims to have confirmed. Originally intended to ship in time for the holidays, the date has been pushed back to early 2010.

According to Arrington, a major phone manufacturers will produce the handset, but with Google's branding (similar to how Toshiba manufactured the first Zune players of Microsoft). and Google will sell the smartphone both directly and through retailers. Hoping to avoid any quirky compromises, Google is in complete control of the entire design and should represent the search giant's vision of what an Android smartphone should ultimately be.

Arrington says the rest is unconfirmed speculation, but that's okay - this is plenty to drum up some buzz and chatter in the Android community, don't you think?

Google Gives You Yet Another Way to Browse Pictures with Image Swirl

Paul Lilly — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:30:13 -0600

Google Labs continues to fine tune the way you look for and view images on your PC. It started with the basic Image Search launched in 2001, which more recently involved into Similar Images. Taking it one step further, Google on Tuesday unveiled an experimental featured called Google Image Swirl.

"Once you find the group of images you're interested in, you can click on the thumbnail and a cluster of images will 'swirl' into view," Google wrote on its blog. "You can then further explore additional sub-groups within any cluster."

To make the effect possible, Google says it tapped into technologies developed for Similar Images and Picasa Face Recognition. All of the thumbnails on the initial results page represents an algorithmically-determined group of images with a similar appearance and meaning.

As it stands, Image Swirl works for more than 200,000 search queries, with even more planned in the future, Google says.

Image Credit: Google

Number of Android Devices Has Devs Worried

Ryan Whitwam — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:02:31 -0600

It’s been just over a year since Android was released, and we’re finally seeing the floodgates open. There are currently no fewer than 12 Android phones available and still more coming soon. While this may make Android fans out there giddy with excitement, it’s not so thrilling for app developers.

There are 3 versions on Android in the wild: 2.0, 1.6, and 1.5. Developers increasingly find themselves devoting time to patching incompatibilities with new Android handsets. “Instead of working on updates to our apps, we find we are trying to make each app work for multiple versions of the OS and different hardware capabilities,” said Froogloid’s Chris Fagan.

The modifications some manufacturers are making to Android complicate things even further. The recent;y released HTC Hero, for example, was incompatible with Froogloid’s application ‘a2b’. When a2b attempted to enable GPS using standard commands, the Hero would instead respond by presenting the lock screen. The new Motorola Droid also had a few incompatibilities due to the high screen resolution and new Android 2.0 APIs.

Can Android overcome this fragmentation? The solution may be to keep phones more uniformly updated. But that requires better cooperation between hardware partners and Google. Only time will tell if Android’s ecosystem can continue to grow more robust despite these challenges.