Firefox 4 and later, Chrome 6 and later, and Opera 10.60 and later have native support for WebM video. IE9 will play WebM with an extension. Android has had native WebM support since 2.3 Gingerbread. WebM is a combination of the VP8 video codec, which Google acquired when they purchased On2 Technologies, the Vorbis open source audio codec, and the Matroska container format. It is designed from the ground up to be optimized for the web, and Google has released all of the patents so it is free and open for anyone to use. And it really is a solid format.

But WebM has struggled to overcome the lead held by H.264, the most popular format for online video. H.264, which is a short way of saying MPEG-4 Part 10 or MPEG-4 AVC, is a patent encumbered video format. Using H.264 requires paying royalties through the MPEG LA, which is why Mozilla resisted supporting it in their products. But H.264 is so ubiquitous that they’ve decided they must support it just to remain relevant in the browser market. Without H.264 support they felt that they’d effectively be locking themselves out of the market.

One of the biggest obstacles for WebM is Apple. Apple has long been a strong backer of H.264 and that’s the native format for all of the iProducts, as well as QuickTime. Apple has not implemented WebM in any of their iProducts, nor in their Safari browser. And with the large and growing usage of mobile devices, and Apples strong share of that market, it pretty much forces content providers to use H.264. While they could provide both WebM and H.264, as YouTube does, most providers simply stick with just H.264 as it is effectively universal. Apple has a horse in the race – they’re one of the patent holders behind H.264, so they’re not keen on any royalty free alternative dethroning it. Microsoft is also one of the patent holders, which may help explain why IE9 lacks native support as well.

There is some hope as the W3C is considering making WebM support a requirement under the HTML 5 standards effort. It is considered beneficial to have one universal, royalty free format that authors could count on. But, of course, companies like Apple & Microsoft are resisting the standardization effort. If it goes through they’d be forced to either implement WebM in their products or stop claiming to be HTML 5 compliant.

Coincidentally with the recent hubbub, StreamingMedia.com posted a video of Google’s John Luther and Matt Frost’s session on WebM at the recent HTML5 Video Summit in Los Angeles. It is an interesting look at just what WebM is, the goals behind it, and where the team is heading. Check it out:

Early in the presentation you may have noticed that they play a video for the audience, off camera. Based on the audio I believe this is the video they played:

I’d love to get a copy of their slides, it is an interesting presentation – for very geek values of interesting, of course.

Android phones:

Android tablets:

Kindle Fire:

iPhone:

iPad:

Windows Phone 7:

Web:

Amazon today launched three new Kindle models, the base Kindle, the Kindle Touch (also in 3G), and the Kindle Fire. The existing Kindle Keyboard (and 3G) and Kindle DX remain available for now. You can compare the different models by clicking on the image to the right.

The base model, known simple as Kindle, has a 6″ 600×800 sixteen shades of grey E-Ink display with 2GB of memory, 1.25GB user available. It measures 6.5″ x 4.5″ x 0.34″ and weights 5.98 ounces. It has 802.11b/g/n networking and USB connectivity. It does not have 3G. It is 30% lighter and 18% smaller than the old model, but a lot of that savings comes from not having a keyboard. Text input requires using the D-pad and buttons to scroll around and on-screen keyboard and selecting one letter at a time. It is really a read-only device. It is available at two price points – “with special offers” (aka advertising) for $79.00 and without for $109.00.

The Kindle Touch has the same 6″ 600×800 sixteen shades of grey E-Ink display, but, as you might have guessed from the name, it is a touch screen. As such the Kindle Touch does away with the D-Pad and buttons and relies on the screen for input.

The Kindle Touch also adds audio with built in speakers and a 3.5mm audio jack, which allows for music playback, audio books, and text-to-speech. It measures 6.8″ x 4.7″ x 0.40″ and weighs 7.5 ounces. Connectivity is via 802.11b/g/n and USB. Total storage is 4GB with 3GB user available. It is also available at two price points – $99.00 with special offers, and $139.00 without.

If you need connectivity on the go there is also the Kindle Touch 3G. It has all of the features of the Kindle Touch, with the addition of 3G support. It uses HSDPA, with a fall-back to EDGE/GPRS, on AT&T’s network in the US. It is slightly heavier at 7.8 ounces, but everything else is the same. It is slightly more expensive – $149.00 with special offers and $189.00 without.

Of course the big story of the day, the one everyone was anticipating, is the release of Amazon’s new ‘Android Tablet’, the Kindle Fire. There has been a lot of speculation and hype about this, and a lot of high expectations – and a lot of people may be disappointed. This is not and iPad competitor, let alone an iPad killer. I wouldn’t even call this an Android Tablet, because that implies a lot that is not true about this device. This is not an Android tablet, this is a media access device closely linked with Amazon’s ecosystem, that just happens to be built on top of Android. It is not aimed at the iPad, it is aimed at the Barnes & Noble NOOKcolor.

As a generic Android tablet it would be fairly limited. It measures 7.5″ x 4.7″ x 0.45″ and weighs 14.6 ounces. It has a 1GHz dual-core CPU, an unknown amount of RAM, a 7″ 1024×600 color LCD touchscreen, only 8GB of storage that is not expandable (no microSD), and 802.11b/g/n. It has no cameras, no HDMI, no GPS, no 3G/4G, and no Bluetooth. And it is based Android 2.3 Gingerbread, not Android 3.0 Honeycomb. But, as I said, that’s not what this is. The user interface looks nothing like Android, it is a completely custom UI designed for Amazon’s services. There are no home screens, no widgets, no notification bar, nothing you’d expect from Android. Instead there is a ‘bookshelf’ interface that shows you books, media, and apps.

Yes, there are apps. There is no access to the Android Market, but, unsurprisingly, you can acquire apps from the Amazon App Store. It is all part of Amazon’s end to end integration. You buy your books from the Kindle Store, your music from Amazon’s MP3 store, and your videos from Amazon Instant Video. And yes, the free Amazon Prime streaming videos are supported. You only need 8GB of storage because you have unlimited storage in Amazon’s cloud for all content you acquire for Amazon – another way they encourage you to stay on the reservation.

If you want a tablet to use for productivity and general computing on the go, this is not the device for you. Buy a full fledged Android tablet and install the Amazon App Store, the Kindle App, the Amazon MP3 App, etc. You’ll have access to the same content, just not the integrated Amazon UI.

If you’re a heavy Amazon content user and you want a high-end portable media player that only costs $199.00, check out the Kindle Fire. It will be available November 15, 2011 and pre-orders are open now.

But do note that, while it bears the Kindle brand, it sacrifices most of the advantages of the other kindle devices. Since it uses a color LCD display instead of greyscale E-Ink battery life is measured in hours – 8 hours of reading or 7.5 hours of video – instead of the 1-2 months for the other devices. And it suffers from the same screen glare and washout issues as any other LCD device, so you won’t be able to view it in direct sunlight like the other Kindles. This is not your ‘read a book at the beach’ device.

The Kindle Fire looks like a great device, well designed for what it is. Just don’t expect it to be something it isn’t.

Along with the Kindle Fire, Amazon announced a new web browser, Amazon Silk. Silk is different from most other web browsers in that it has a split architecture. It lives on both the Kindle Fire and in Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). Instead of directly pulling all of the content to the device and rendering it there, browsing requests go through the EC2. Content is pulled into the cloud and processed there before delivering and optimized result to the device. Since it is running through the cloud Amazon can also do clever things like cache commonly used content and even use aggregate behavior data to pre-fetch content it expects you to load next. If you’re looking at the front page of CNN they know which pages most users look at next and can pre-fetch that content to have it staged in the cloud for fast delivery.

Amazon is touting this as a new idea, but it isn’t really. Way back in the late 90s Palm used this kind of proxy pre-processing system to digest content for display on their early wireless devices, to accommodate their limitations. More recently Opera Turbo, the Skyfire browser, the Bolt browser, and probably others used similar systems to speed up page loading, provide Flash content to iOS devices, etc. But Amazon’s Silk benefits from their massive EC2 infrastructure, and their likely-to-be-huge user base which will provide them with the data they need for optimized caching and pre-fetching.

The existing Kindle models have also been repriced – the Kindle Keyboard is $99.00 with special offers and $139.00 without, the Kindle Keyboard 3G is $139.00 with and $189.00 without, and the Kindle DX (which has a 9.7″ screen and 3G) is $379.00.

The Amazon homepage announcement is below:

This is a bit free form since it was an off-the-cuff Facebook comment, but this is what I’d like to see from TiVo integrating with Facebook, and social media in general. It sounds like they’ll actually be covering a few of these bases in the functionality they’ve announced.

Let us *automatically* sync our Season Passes and Auto-Record Wishlists to Facebook and share them with friends – don’t make us maintain a separate list on FB.

Let us recommend shows to FB friends that they can accept and have it automatically setup a recording on their TiVo. You can have it set to manually approve recommendations, or auto-accept all of them. I see these slotting it just above TiVo Suggestions – they only record if nothing else is recording, just like TiVo Suggestions. They delete second – after all TiVo Suggestions are deleted these are deleted. And should have their own ‘Friend’s Suggestions’ group in the NPL.

Let us rate/recommend shows right from the TiVo and have it update our Walls. Even include comments – I could see this helping to sell a few Slide Remotes.

Not directly FB related, but how about integrating support for Miso? https://gomiso.com/ (I don’t use it, but I see a lot of Wall posts from people who do. If I could do it from my TiVo, I might.)

Let me setup special groups of friends, etc, such that our tastes influence each other’s TiVo Suggestions. Or maybe this would be yet another grouping – Hive Mind Suggestions, as it were. So say I have a bunch of anime fan friends, we pool as a group and then the shows they like are more likely to be recorded as Suggestions on my TiVo, and on their TiVos. Basically adding ‘weight’ to their thumb ratings above the general anonymous masses.

Going *way* out there, how about something like Sling’s still born ‘Clip & Sling’ functionality where we can mark a section of a show while watching on our TiVos, then post that clip with a comment. If uploading the video, or otherwise getting the clip, is too much, maybe it offers a link where they can have the same clip highlighted on their TiVo if they have the episode recorded. This would be useful for fans of s show who want to discuss it. Again, sell those TiVo Slide Remotes.

Offer an easy way to create ‘Record this episode’ or ‘Create a Season Pass’ links for people to use in comments – as well as on fan pages for shows, etc. Synergy, if you’ll forgive me.

Oh – Idea for a browser plug-in – ‘Send To TiVo’! When you see a video online that you like it’d let you tell your TiVo at home to download the video and have it waiting for you to watch on the big screen. It wouldn’t work with all videos, but most of them should work with today’s TiVos. This would be more useful as a plug-in for Chrome, Firefox, etc, as it’d work on any site, not just sites you convince to add some button for this, etc.

But the basic ability to update FB status and/or tweet about the show I’m watching (again, nice Slide Remote right here, waiting), while I’m watching it, would probably be what I used most.

So what about you? What kind of integration do you want to see between TiVo and social media? Or are you a curmudgeon who thinks social media is just a passing fad and TiVo shouldn’t waste their time on it?

You’ll be able to use the app to share what shows you’re watching and your ratings with your friends on Facebook. They’ll then be able to use those ratings in the app to discover content, see what their friends are watching, and maybe check out those shows themselves. You’ll be able to discuss your shows, movies, etc, with Facebook friends – whether they’re TiVo subscribers or not.

I know a lot of people are going to think this is pointless or something they won’t use, etc. And that’s fine. No one has to use this if it isn’t something they want. But I think this is a good move for TiVo and I’ve been suggesting that they do something like this for years. (Actually I’ll dig up a comment I left on Facebook a while back and make that my next post.) I want to see TiVo integrate with social media like Facebook and Twitter to allow users to share what they’re watching, which shows they like, etc. I think it increases the value of the TiVo platform and the ‘stickiness’ which helps keep users engaged, and also helps draw others to the platform. If they do it right I think this will be good for TiVo and TiVo users.

I have one minor disappointment with this announcement – it relies on the external app. While I’m still waiting for the promised Android version (and trying to remain patient…), I’d really like to see these features built into the TiVo. With the HW in the Premiere and the Flash app platform I think they’d be able to do an overlay. With the TiVo Slide remote it would be pretty easy to send out a quick Facebook update or Tweet right from the screen. I hope we see this kind of thing in the future. But, in the meantime, support via the app is a good step forward, IMHO.

The updated iOS apps, with the new Facebook integration, will roll out later this year.

The full press release is below:

TiVo Integrates with Facebook® Platform to Define the Future of Social TV

TiVo iPad and iPhone Apps to Add Deeper Facebook Integration Layering Friends’ Recommendations and Real-Time Viewing Activity over TiVo’s Smart Search, Browse and Suggestion Features

Alviso, Calif., September 22, 2011 – TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and leader in advanced television services including digital video recorders (DVRs), announced in conjunction with f8, Facebook’s developer conference, that it will update its popular iPhone and iPad apps to include additional integration with Facebook® to increase Social TV functionality. Facebook’s newly announced Like and Watch integrations with the enhanced Facebook APIs which will allow people who use the TiVo® service to further connect with family, friends, and subscribers around the entertainment they love to offer an added layer of recommendations further enabling TiVo lovers to enjoy brilliant TV from the world’s only smart DVR.

The improved Facebook integration creates a social guide for people to expand their typical entertainment choices by discovering new programs through the recommendations of their Facebook friends. TiVo users will be able to discover programs their Facebook friends endorse with the Like feature, or view what shows their friends are currently enjoying with the Watch feature and immediately schedule a recording or watch live based on those recommendations. And because the TiVo iPad and iPhone apps are linked to the TiVo DVR, TiVo users can feature the program they’re watching to their friends and subscribers on Facebook with a flick of their finger.

“When we launched the TiVo apps for iPhone and iPad earlier this year, we did so with the goal of expanding the ways TiVo lovers can interact with people, the web, and the entertainment they’re viewing while they watch TV. With this improved Facebook integration, TiVo users can discover things to watch from the new social guide, and can feature their entertainment experiences and choices with their friends,” said Jim Denney, Vice President and General Manager of product marketing for TiVo Inc. “Through full integration with the set-top box, TiVo is defining the future of Social TV by offering a new way for people to connect and interact on the second screen in a way that is fully integrated with their actual TV watching experience.”

The TiVo App retains its unique and easy-to-use interface and lets people peruse TiVo’s hallmark search, browse and recommendation functions, without disrupting what they are watching on the big screen. As people connect and interact with the Social TV features on the TiVo app, they will have more robust access to suggested programming provided by their networks on Facebook.

The improved integrations will launch on the TiVo app later this year. The TiVo App is available for free from the App Store on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, or at www.itunes.com/appstore.

The TiVo App for iPhone supports all high definition TiVo DVRs, including TiVo Premiere, Premiere XL, Series3™, HD and HD XL.* Series2 and non-TiVo users can still sample the TiVo experience through the apps Guest Mode. Users can browse, search and scroll through program and channel guides and experience the simplicity of the TiVo interface. A valid TiVo user account is required for full functionality.

For more information on the TiVo app please visit www.tivo.com/ipad.

*TiVo Series3™, HD and HD XL DVR users will enjoy the app’s guide, scheduling, remote control, search and explore features, but these users should anticipate a smaller set of features and capabilities than TiVo Premiere users.

Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.

# # #

About TiVo Inc.

Founded in 1997, TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO – News) developed the first commercially available digital video recorder (DVR). TiVo offers the TiVo service and TiVo DVRs directly to consumers online at www.TiVo.com and through third-party retailers. TiVo also distributes its technology and services through solutions tailored for cable, satellite and broadcasting companies. Since its founding, TiVo has evolved into the ultimate single solution media center by combining its patented DVR technologies and universal cable box capabilities with the ability to aggregate, search, and deliver millions of pieces of broadband, cable, and broadcast content directly to the television. An economical, one-stop-shop for in-home entertainment, TiVo’s intuitive functionality and ease of use puts viewers in control by enabling them to effortlessly navigate the best digital entertainment content available through one box, with one remote, and one user interface, delivering the most dynamic user experience on the market today. TiVo also continues to weave itself into the fabric of the media industry by providing interactive advertising solutions and audience research and measurement ratings services to the television industry www.TiVo.com

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements relate to, among other things, specific TiVo products and timing of distribution of those products. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as, “believe,” “expect,” “may,” “will,” “intend,” “estimate,” “continue,” or similar expressions or the negative of those terms or expressions. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to vary materially from those expressed in or indicated by the forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially include delays in development, competitive service offerings and lack of market acceptance, as well as the other potential factors described under “Risk Factors” in the Company’s public reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2011, our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended April 30, 2011, and Current Reports on Form 8-K. The Company cautions you not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which reflect an analysis only and speak only as of the date hereof. TiVo disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

TiVo is proud to introduce a new way to share some of the best elements of the TiVo experience with select partners. TiVo Design enables our partners to leverage our fun-to-navigate menu system and license some of the patented search technologies that have helped make TiVo a household name. While products powered by TiVo Design do not represent the full power and capabilities of a TiVo DVR, they go a long way to making your TV-watching experience easier and more convenient.

Currently the only product featured on the page, and the only one publicly acknowledged (that I can recall anyway), is the Insignia cTV sold by Best Buy, launched last month. Hopefully, given they’ve given TiVo Design its own dedicated page and they refer to ‘partners’ and ‘products’ in the text, we’ll be seeing more additions to the TiVo Design family.

Lifted right from their post:

• Aardvark: Aardvark was a start-up we acquired in 2010. An experiment in a new kind of social search, it helped people answer each other’s questions. While Aardvark will be closing, we’ll continue to work on tools that enable people to connect and discover richer knowledge about the world.
• Desktop: In the last few years, there’s been a huge shift from local to cloud-based storage and computing, as well as the integration of search and gadget functionality into most modern operating systems. People now have instant access to their data, whether online or offline. As this was the goal of Google Desktop, the product will be discontinued on September 14, including all the associated APIs, services, plugins, gadgets and support.
• Fast Flip: Fast Flip was started to help pioneer news content browsing and reading experiences for the web and mobile devices. For the past two years, in collaboration with publishers, the Fast Flip experiment has fueled a new approach to faster, richer content display on the web. This approach will live on in our other display and delivery tools.
• Google Maps API for Flash: The Google Maps API for Flash was launched to provide ActionScript developers a way to integrate Google Maps into their applications. Although we’re deprecating the API, we’ll keep supporting existing Google Maps API Premier customers using the Google Maps API for Flash and we’ll focus our attention on the JavaScript Maps API v3 going forward.
• Google Pack: Due to the rapidly decreasing demand for downloadable software in favor of web apps, we will discontinue Google Pack today. People will still be able to access Google’s and our partners’ software quickly and easily through direct links on the Google Pack website.
• Google Web Security: Google Web Security came to Google as part of the Postini acquisition in 2007, and since then we’ve integrated much of the web security functionality directly into existing Google products, such as safe browsing in Chrome. Although our previous sales channel will be discontinued, we’ll continue to support our existing customers.
• Image Labeler: We began Google Image Labeler as a fun game to help people explore and label the images on the web. Although it will be discontinued, a wide variety of online games from Google are still available.
• Notebook: Google Notebook enabled people to combine clipped URLs from the web and free-form notes into documents they could share and publish. We’ll be shutting down Google Notebook in the coming months, but we’ll automatically export all notebook data to Google Docs.
• Sidewiki: Over the past few years, we’ve seen extraordinary innovation in terms of making the web collaborative. So we’ve decided to discontinue Sidewiki and focus instead on our broader social initiatives. Sidewiki authors will be given more details about this closure in the weeks ahead, and they’ll have a number of months to download their content.
• Subscribed Links: Subscribed Links enabled developers to create specialized search results that were added to the normal Google search results on relevant queries for subscribed users. Although we’ll be discontinuing Subscribed Links, developers will be able to access and download their data until September 15, at which point subscribed links will no longer appear in people’s search results.

Aardvark is the one I’ll miss the most, because it is the one I used the most. I asked a couple of questions, but I’ve mainly been answering other users’ questions since the very early days of the service. I don’t know, I kind of get a kick out of having random questions pop up in Google talk. Looking at my history I answered my first question on July 6, 2009 and my most recent, number 443, on August 22, 2011. Coincidentally they both involved TiVo. I could see something like this getting built into Google+, asking your circles for answers, etc.

Google Desktop I still have installed, but I haven’t really used it in ages. I installed it mainly out of habit. I have to agree with Google, with most of my work in the cloud I just don’t really need the features of Desktop.

Fast Flip… I never got this. Did anyone really use this?

Google Maps API for Flash – I’m not sure I’ve encountered a Flash app that used it, and I’m not a Flash developer, so I don’t care.

Google Pack is something else I still have installed. But I won’t miss it. I use Google Pack just because it makes installing a few apps on a new machine easier. I have Skype, RealPlayer, Adobe Reader, Google Picasa, Google Chrome, and Google Earth. I don’t use the Pack version of Google Apps because they’re actually the Gmail versions. Since I use the full, hosted Google Apps I use the special versions downloaded from there. Losing Pack just means a little more work when first installing these apps on a new box, no big deal.

Google Web Security has been spread around into other products, so it isn’t really a loss. Having the features transparently embedded elsewhere is better.

Image Labeler – I’d never even heard of this before now.

Notebook – I vaguely remember hearing of this, but I never used it.

Sidewiki – This I still have installed, but it is more force of habit. It was something that I thought was kind of curious when it launched, and I played with it for a bit, but it never caught on. It felt like a waste writing notes when it seemed like no one else was using it, and since no one else was using it there were rarely other notes to read. I expect to see more commenting hooks into Google+ that will probably catch on more than Sidewiki ever did.

Subscribed Links is something else I’d heard of, but never used myself, so I won’t miss it.

I can’t argue with Google phasing out these products and services and putting the resources into more important products, or into new ideas. I’m glad Google takes risks with projects like these, trying new things to see what sticks. If something is successful it gets beefed up into a more complete product. If it is partially successful then the pieces that work get recycled into other projects. And if it just doesn’t catch on enough to justify continued effort, then it is a learning experience. Google doesn’t need everything to be a smash hit, but they need to keep trying things because no one can say what the next smash hit product will be.

So what do you think about the cuts? Leave a comment!

Except it is already taken, by one Majan Fernandez Primitivo. He’s a rock musician who goes by the stage name ‘Tivo’, derived from his last name. And he registered Tivo.es back in 2005 to use for self-promotion. It currently redirects to his MySpace page.

According to Domain Name Wire, TiVo filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization to try to claim the domain. But the arbitrator sided with Primtivo. After all, it is his stage name and legitimately part of his legal name. And he is using the site for legitimate purposes, not infringing on TiVo’s trademarks at all.

Frankly, I’m glad. The domain name dispute system is meant to work this way. If you register a domain in bad faith, to profit from the reputation of a trademark holder for example, and you have no legitimate claim to the name, then under the policy you should lose it. The idea is to prevent domain squatters from claiming trademarked domains with the sole intention of holding it hostage for a high price, or unscrupulous types setting up a scam site trading off of a reputable trademark.

But if you register a domain in good faith and have a legitimate claim to it, just because a corporation may use the same name as a trademark doesn’t give them the right to take it away.

It isn’t clear from the article, but I’m hoping they didn’t turn to WIPO as their first option. The right thing to do would be to approach Primtivo with an offer to acquire the domain and to try to negotiate a reasonable solution. Maybe offering him free ONO service and a TiVo DVR (presuming he lives in their service area), buy him a new domain, etc.

Perhaps he turned them down and they decided to try to play hard ball, which frankly still doesn’t sit well with me – just accept it and move on. But if they didn’t try to negotiate before, that seems to be the option now and they’re probably not starting from a good position. After all, if someone tried to rip one of my domains out of my hands I wouldn’t be very inclined to view them favorably in a subsequent negotiation.

In any case, it looks like TiVo already grabbed mytivo.es in June, 2010. It redirects to the TiVo homepage. (Maybe someone should point that to the ONO sign up page instead? Wouldn’t that make more sense guys?)

Via Domain Name Wire.

Hello everybody out there using minix –

I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and
professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing
since april, and is starting to get ready. I’d like any feedback on
things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat
(same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons)
among other things).

I’ve currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work.
This implies that I’ll get something practical within a few months, and
I’d like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions
are welcome, but I won’t promise I’ll implement them

Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)

PS. Yes – it’s free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs.
It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never
will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that’s all I have .

As you might have guessed from the name of the poster, or the image of Tux I’m using for this post, the project is what the world came to know as Linux.

But “One of the most important software projects in history”? I think that’s a fair statement. You may not be a ‘Linux geek’ – you don’t run a Linux desktop, maintain a Linux server, etc. (Yes, I’m sure some of you do.) But odds are you use Linux every day.

Android, of course, is based on the Linux kernel . So if you use an Android phone, Google TV, etc., you benefit from Linux. ChromeOS is also based on a Linux kernel.

Many home routers and WiFi access points use the Linux kernel. TiVo famously uses the Linux kernel in their products. Google’s servers run a custom version of Linux. The New York Stock Exchange runs on Linux – frankly countless corporations use Linux for core servers, trying to list them all would be pointless. The ‘LAMP’ platform is an industry standard – where LAMP is Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl/PHP/Python. (The P tends to vary.)

Linux powers cash registers and ATMs. It is used in set top boxes and automotive applications.

Linux is used in network gear that caries vast quantities of Internet traffic. My day job employer, F5 Networks, uses the Linux kernel on our boxes, which are used by pretty much all of the leading banks and financial institutions, major corporations, and web services that you probably use every day. Ever use Facebook? Or Microsoft’s Xbox network? Your traffic very likely passed through a box running the Linux kernel.

Beyond the direct effects of having a free and open source UNIX-like operating system available to jump start countless projects, and avoid reinventing the wheel and/or paying big fees to license a proprietary platform, Linux has had an even greater impact by popularizing open source. The success of Linux inspired countless open source projects. It helped people realize you can do open source and still be a successful business. Linux is free and open, but it is still a big money maker for countless vendors. The two aren’t exclusive. I feel that Linux did more to raise awareness of this than BSD or GNU which preceded it.

My first exposure to Linux came nearly twenty years ago, not long after it released. I was in college at the time and I remember downloading it in the campus computing center to try out. What has since been jokingly dubbed the ‘stack of floppies’ distro, since that’s how you got it. I vaguely remember it being eleven 3.5″ floppies, but time may have fuzzed that memory. Later moving on to my first ‘real’ distro, Slackware. Still later on, in my professional career, I was a Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) for a while, having long since switched to Red Hat Linux as my primary choice. I also worked with SuSE, RHEL, CentOS, and a few others. (Sorry, I was never a big Debian fan for some reason.) Linux never really caught on in the desktop world, but it did well for itself everywhere else. And with mobile devices like smartphones and tablets setting the world on fire, and conventional PC sales slipping, Linux may win the long game yet.

And it all started with one man doing something as a hobby twenty years ago. On the one hand I feel like “Wow, has it really been twenty years already?” But even more so I feel “Wow, have things really come so far in only twenty years?”

That one simple post was the start of something unimaginably huge.

Happy 20th Birthday, Linux.

And thanks for the gift, Linus.

So, anyway, one of my few complaints with Android is the browser. Not that it is really lacking in any significant way, just that it isn’t Chrome. We already know Chrome can run on Android, Google TV uses Chrome on Android. And we know ‘desktop’ browsers work in general as Motorola has Firefox in their ‘webtop’ app on the Atrix. There’s also Firefox Mobile and Opera for Android, which are closely related to the desktop kin. As a Chrome user on the desktop, I’ve really wanted Chrome on my phone, complete with extensions, etc. And it never really made much sense to me that the Android browser was a different codebase.

Well, apparently Google is finally bringing everything together. They’re bringing the Android browser into the WebKit fold – Chrome is based on WebKit. ‘Browser’, as it is simply named, has always been based on WebKit, but it has long since been divorced from the core project. That meant that changes in WebKit couldn’t be directly brought into Browser, and vice-versa. That’s finally coming to an end, as the Android Browser finally shares enough code with the Chromium branch of WebKit (the open source basis for Chrome) that it can be based directly on that branch. That should benefit all around as enhancements to one can be easily shared with the other.

As reported by CNET News, Google stated:

The Android Browser and Chrome already share a lot of code, such as the same WebKit rendering engine, V8 JavaScript engine, and HTTP [Hypertext Transfer Protocol] stack. We expect them to continue to share more code over time and have actually started harmonizing our efforts so that Google will have just one port of WebKit to maintain. Beyond that, we have nothing further to share at this time.

WebKit is the success that Mozilla’s Gecko always aspired to be but never quite was – the basis for many major browsers. WebKit started out as a port of the KHTML engine from the KDE Linux project for Apple’s Safari browser. Now it serves as the heart of Safari, Chrome, Android Browser, RIM’s mobile browsers, the WebOS browser, Samsung’s Bada browser, the web browser for Symbian S60, the Amazon Kindle browser, and many others – even Valve’s Steam uses WebKit. So the more developers sharing enhancements with each other, the better for all of us.

I’m looking forward to Chrome on Android.

Via CNET News.

10% of HDTVs in the US are now Connected TVs, like the Insignia TiVo models launched last week. The FMA study also indicates 6% receive OTT content via TiVo or other DVRs (I’m guessing mostly TiVo, since few other DVRs offer OTT content). Apple TV and Google TV account for 4% each, Roku nabs 3% while Slingbox and Boxee each grab 1%. I’m not sure what Slingbox is going in there, since a Slingbox is a sending device, not a receiving device. And the SlingCatcher surely doesn’t register.

I think the most surprising number out of all of these is that Google TV is 4%. It is only in a handful of devices, I find it hard to believe it would have more penetration than Roku. It just seems strange. The price on the Logitech Revue was slashed just last week. (Mine arrived yesterday, BTW. I haven’t had time to set it up yet.)

Also somewhat surprising, the study says only 7% of US households have a connected Blu-ray player. With network connectivity seemingly standard in so many players today, I’d've thought that number would be higher. But I suppose it hasn’t been that long since the trend started.

The end result of all this? 10% of adults watch at least one video a week on their TV via one of these devices.

Via MediaPost.

An update on Google Toolbar for Firefox

First of all, we’d like to thank all of our loyal users of Google Toolbar for Firefox. We deeply appreciate all of the feedback over the years that helped to make the product so useful. As we all know, over the past few years, there has been a tremendous amount of innovation in the browser space. For Firefox users, many features that were once offered by Google Toolbar for Firefox are now already built right into the browswer. Therefore, while Google Toolbar for Firefox works on versions up to and including Firefox 4 only, it will not be supported on Firefox 5 and future versions. Please see our Help Center for additional details.

I’d been a Netscape user since around 0.9 up through 4.79, until I made the jump to Mozilla Suite (aka Seamonkey). I used that until Firefox hit 1.0, when I transitioned to the latter. I adopted the Google Toolbar early in its life, as it added a lot of useful functionality to the browser. Last year I switched to Chrome full time, which has most of the Toolbar features built in or available as extensions, so I haven’t been a Google Toolbar user in a while. But as a long time user I sympathize with the users who now go with out.

Though it isn’t as big of a loss as it once would’ve been – many of the features first introduced in Google Toolbar are now built into Firefox natively. And many of the other Toolbar features are available through other FF extensions. As CNET Reports, form autofill, spell checking, bookmark synchronization, and a search box are built into FF, and suggestions and customer searches are both supported in the ‘Awesome Bar’. Google themselves have presented a helpful list of replacement extensions for users missing the features of Toolbar.

Personally, I say just switch to Chrome. But I know not everyone is willing to switch away from Firefox.

The Google Toolbar for IE lives on for now.

My personal opinion is that it is about time, and I mean that as supportively as possible. Back when TiVo first introduced online scheduling one of the first things geeks like myself did was try it from our mobile devices – PDAs and smartphones. And the main TiVo website has always been a little iffy on mobile devices, for various reasons. So there has long been a call to make the site work better on mobiles. And then when they launched the Verizon scheduling application it created a renewed call for generic mobile device support via a standards-based mobile-optimized website. So I’m really glad to see this announced, and I look forward to trying it out as soon as it is available.

The new site isn’t just limited to TiVo users, it is open to anyone with a mobile device with an Internet connection and web browser. You can browse TV schedules and search for programs. The descriptions sounds a lot like the functionality in TiVo’s Swivel Search or WishLists. You can search title, actor, director, and keyword – so when your out with friends and you can’t think of the name of that show with that actor you know, you can find it right away. And it also has TiVo’s recommendations engine, used in TiVo Suggestions, to suggest “If you like this, you may also like” entries. And, of course, TiVo owners will be able to then schedule recordings on their TiVo right from the phone.

The press release:

ANOTHER REASON TO GIVE THANKS – A FREE, NEW MOBILE WEB SITE PUTS TIVO SCHEDULING IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND, YOUR NEIGHBOR’S HAND, EVERYONE’S HAND

New TiVo Mobile web site allows TV fans to browse, search, discover, and record television shows on the go, adding another great value to the already invaluable TiVo service

Alviso, Calif. November 25 — Heading out to holiday dinners, get-away vacations, or just being away from home no longer means missing out on your favorite television programming. That’s because TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs) launched TiVo Mobile, a free mobile phone-optimized Web site that allows subscribers and non-subscribers alike to browse, search, and discover television shows, regardless of mobile platform, carrier or browser. The site can be accessed with any Internet-enabled phone through any network, regardless of carrier, opening up the service to millions and millions of cell phone owners.

The new mobile site, located at m.tivo.com, lets television fans stay in touch with their TiVo® DVR when they are away from the living room, giving them the power to schedule recordings directly to their TiVo box from their mobile phone. TiVo is known for its simple, intuitive interface, and the TiVo Mobile web site delivers more of the same. The site is optimized for easy use on a small screen, offering the exceptional user experience TiVo fans know and love. Site visitors can search for programs by actor, title, director, and keyword, with additional functions including Daily Recommendations and Most Popular. Like TiVo’s famous recommendations engine, the TiVo Mobile site features an “If you like this…” tool to help users find new shows.

“TiVo started out making television a more convenient, personal experience, and this is the next step to give television lovers total control over their media. Whether you are standing in line at the bank or talking about a new show with friends at dinner, you can now find and record shows whenever, wherever, a perfect tool for everyone,” said Jim Denney, vice president of product marketing at TiVo Inc.

TiVo subscribers have the option to schedule recordings on their Series2™ or Series3™ TiVo boxes directly through the site, bringing a new level of ease to recording TV.

Anyone can browse, search and discover television shows, whether or not they have a TiVo DVR at home. The TiVo Mobile site extends on-the-go functionality to a large audience, bringing the freedom of TiVo scheduling to places it has never been before.

The new application joins an unmatched set of service features available to TiVo lovers, including content from Amazon Video on Demand and Jaman, as well as videos from YouTube direct to the TV set. Coming this December, thousands of movies and TV episodes can be instantly streamed from Netflix. The new mobile site also nicely complements remote scheduling through TiVo.com and TiVo Desktop Software, which allows viewers to transfer their shows to an Apple iPod, Sony PSP, or other portable players.

M.tivo.com is in beta beginning today and will be available on a wide scale within a few weeks.

The TiVo Mobile web site was built in conjunction with mobile application development agency, Mobui Corporation. More information on Mobui Corporation can be found at http://www.mobui.com.

# # #

About TiVo Inc.
Founded in 1997, TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO) pioneered a brand new category of products with the development of the first commercially available digital video recorder (DVR). Sold through leading consumer electronic retailers, TiVo has developed a brand which resonates boldly with consumers as providing a superior television experience. Through agreements with leading satellite and cable providers, TiVo also integrates its full set of DVR service features into the set-top boxes of mass distributors. TiVo’s DVR functionality and ease of use, with such features as Season Pass™ recordings, WishList® searches and TiVo KidZone have elevated its popularity among consumers and have created a whole new way for viewers to watch television. With a continued investment in its patented technologies, TiVo is revolutionizing the way consumers watch and access home entertainment. Rapidly becoming the focal point of the digital living room, TiVo’s DVR is at the center of experiencing new forms of content on the TV, such as broadband delivered video, music and photos. With innovative features such as, TiVoToGo™ and online scheduling, TiVo is expanding the notion of consumers experiencing “TiVo, TV your way.” The TiVo® service is also at the forefront of providing innovative marketing solutions for the television industry, including a unique platform for advertisers and audience measurement research. The company is based in Alviso, Calif.

TiVo, TiVoCast, ‘TiVo, TV your way.’ Season Pass, WishList, TiVoToGo and the TiVo Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of TiVo Inc. and its subsidiaries worldwide. ©2008 TiVo Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements relate to, among other things, TiVo’s future business and growth strategies including TiVo’s mass distribution strategy and retail bundling efforts, profitability and financial guidance, distribution of the TiVo service domestically with Comcast, DIRECTV, and Cox and internationally, growth and innovation in TiVo’s advertising and audience research measurement business, the timing and availability of broadband content, the results of TiVo’s litigation with EchoStar, how TiVo intends to exploit its intellectual property, TiVo’s future marketing spend and related activities, and financial performance. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as, “believe,” “expect,” “may,” “will,” “intend,” “estimate,” “continue,” or similar expressions or the negative of those terms or expressions. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to vary materially from those expressed in or indicated by the forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially include delays in development, competitive service offerings and lack of market acceptance, as well as the other potential factors described under “Risk Factors” in the Company’s public reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2008, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the fiscal periods ended April 30, 2008 and July 31, 2008, and our Current Reports on Form 8-K. The Company cautions you not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which reflect an analysis only and speak only as of the date hereof. TiVo disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Media Contacts:

Jessica Loebig
TiVo Inc.
408-519-9655
jloebig@tivo.com

Anne Baker
For Mobui
(425) 442-1806
mobui@bluecreekmarketing.com

As always, let me know if you spot a problem.

Example templates:

YouTube:
<div class=”video”>
<object data=”VIDEO-URL” width=”425″ height=”344″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash”>
<param name=”movie” value=”VIDEO-URL” />
<param name=”allowfullscreen” value=”true” />
<param name=”wmode” value=”transparent” />
<param name=”quality” value=”high” />
</object>
</div>

BlipTV:
<div class=”video”>
<object data=”VIDEO-URL” width=”320″ height=”270″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash”>
<param name=”movie” value=”VIDEO-URL” />
<param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always” />
<param name=”allowfullscreen” value=”true” />
<param name=”wmode” value=”transparent” />
<param name=”quality” value=”high” />
</object>
</div>

Brightcove:
<div class=”video”>
<object data=”http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/452319854″ width=”486″ height=”412″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash”>
<param name=”movie” value=”http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/452319854″ />
<param name=”FlashVars” value=”videoId=VIDEO-ID&playerId=452319854&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://services.brightcove.com/services/amfgateway&servicesURL=http://services.brightcove.com/services&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&domain=embed&autoStart=false” />
<param name=”base” value=”http://admin.brightcove.com” />
<param name=”seamlesstabbing” value=”false” />
<param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true” />
<param name=”swLiveConnect” value=”true” />
<param name=”wmode” value=”transparent” />
<param name=”quality” value=”high” />
</object>
</div>

When I didn’t expect was a nearly all-new browser which takes a clean sheet approach to browser design and changes some of the fundamental elements that have been common to browsers for a while now. But then again, this is Google, I probably shouldn’t be surprised that that is exactly what they’ve done with Google Chrome. It has been outed on the Official Google Blog, and interestingly via a 38-page comic book Google commissioned. I have to say, the comic format really worked for me. It made it somewhat entertaining, yet all of the elements were clear and understandable. Of course, I’m a geek and I’ve been doing web development since 1991. The first browser I used was Cern’s command line browser. (I won’t go into old-man mode and say ‘and we liked it that way’ – because, frankly, it sucked. I’m much happier with today’s browsers, believe me.)

Word got out prematurely when hard copies of the comic were received by bloggers early, and it was scanned and posted to Google Blogoscoped, which also followed up with some more information. The official launch is planned for later today (September 2nd). I’m looking forward to checking it out, it sounds like an interesting project. (I’m amused, but not surprised, that it already has a Wikipedia page.)

Of course, it is entering a market full of competitors. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still dominates the Windows market, and I have to admit IE8 looks to be shaping up to be a fairly decent browser so far, based on the beta releases. Safari has a strong hold on Mac users. Firefox is the number two browser overall, a popular choice on Windows and giving Safari a run on Mac. Opera is still chugging along, though it is really not a strong player on desktops overall. Opera seems to have found more success on embedded and mobile devices.

Interestingly, Google Chrome’s rendering engine is based on Apple’s Webkit. That’s the engine at the core of Safari on the Mac, Windows, and, of course, the iPhone/iPod Touch. (And it evolved from the KHTML engine from the KDE project’s Konqueror browser.) Webkit is also used as the core of the browser in Google’s Android mobile platform, as well as in the browser included on Nokia’s Symbian Series60 mobile devices. It has also been used in a number of other products.

However, Google Chrome appears to only using the WebCore layout and rendering component from WebKit, and not the JavaScriptCore scripting engine. Instead Google has selected a new JavaScript engine from V8 in Denmark. They’ve taken a new approach to JavaScript engines which is designed to offer improved performance, especially when running increasingly complex web applications. Under the covers it offers better memory management and garbage collection, which should help make things more stable and reduce memory bloat.

Those seem to be three of the major goals of Google Chrome, better performance, better stability, and reduced memory leaks/bloat, along with a fourth goal, improved security. They’ve changed the way browser processes are handled, offering better sandboxing to protect the system from malicious web apps. Google’s anti-phishing and anti-malware filters are also built into Chrome. (These are also offered in Firefox.) Google Gears is also included with Chrome, which will help performance with websites and web applications that use the Gears API. (For example, WordPress supports Gears on the admin interface to improve performance.)

And the best part is that Google is releasing Chome as open source. So all of the work they’ve done, and will do, is available to other developers and vendors to borrow and learn from. It sounds like they’ve done some very interesting things, so there are probably a few things others could learn from this.

Getting users to adopt Chrome is going to be the hard part. Firefox has been out for years and still has a small minority of the market. IE is still hovering around 70% of browser traffic in the Internet. People tend to use what is in front of them, for better or for worse. And with the current IE, that’s for worse. While IE7 is light years ahead of IE6, that’s not saying much as IE6 was utter crap. IE8 does look like it will help, but until it is out of beta most users won’t run it. Even once it is out of beta, unless MS pushes it as an automatic update, most users never upgrade.

For me I’ll have to see how Chrome performs, what the new UI is like, and what features it offers. I’ve never been a fan of Opera because I couldn’t stand the UI choices they made. It just didn’t suit me. I’ve played with Safari, and it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t that appealing. Certainly not enough to sway me from Firefox. I like the Firefox UI, I’m sure in large part because it has evolved steadily from the old Netscape UI. I started using Netscape when it was still around .9, up through 4.79. Then I switched to Mozilla Suite. And finally to Firefox after it hit 1.0. But also because of the extensions that allow me to customize it to my tastes and needs, as I recently covered.

As intrigued as I am by the new design direction Google has taken, it will come down to usability and functionality. I think Google probably has better odds of winning me over than any other player to date, especially if they can deliver on the performance and security. It will be interesting to see if they offer any synchronization between Google Chrome and the browser on Android. Being able to transparently store my browser preferences, bookmarks, etc, ‘in the cloud’ and access them from any Google browser would be a big appeal for me.

You know, with all of Google’s web-based applications (Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Reader, etc), they’re really close to being able to release a Google PC. From what I’ve seen Android could make a decent OS for a ‘netbook’ style computer, and Chrome could provide the main application environment.

I also finally got around to switching to Firefox 3 yesterday. I’d kept using Firefox 2 because of some of the browser add-ons I prefer not yet being supported on FF3. But they flipped the switch to start prompting FF2 users to upgrade, and I decided enough of the add-ons were now available to make the jump.

• Adblock Plus 0.7.5.5
• BugMeNot 2.0
• ColorZilla 1.9
• FirefoxView 1.0
• Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer 2.1.0.12
• FoxyTunes 3.0.4
• Google Gears 0.4.15.0
• Google Toolbar for Firefox 3.1.20080730W
• Html Validator 0.8.5.2
• IE View Lite 1.3.3
• Image Zoom 0.3.1
• InfoLister 0.10
• JavaScript Debugger 0.9.87.4
• Linkification 1.3.5
• Linky 2.7.1
• Live HTTP Headers 0.14
• MR Tech Link Wrapper 2.2.1
• Plain Text to Link 1.5.20080618
• Tab Mix Plus 0.3.7pre.080816
• Tweak Network 1.3
• View Cookies 1.7
• Web Developer 1.1.6

Unfortunately it looks like two of my favorite Firefox extensions are gone for good – Tabbrowser Preferences and Google Browser Sync. Tabbrowser Preferences was last updated in 2006 and it looks like development is dead and it won’t be updated for FF3. I’m trying out Tab Mix Plus as a replacement, and it seems to do a decent job, but if anyone has a suggestion for a better add-on to replace Tabbrowser Preferences I’d love to hear it.

And I was upset to find that Google has discontinued Google Browser Sync. If you currently have it installed you can continue using it through 2008, but you can no longer download the add-on and it wasn’t updated for FF3. This is the biggest loss for me, I made constant use of this. I loved being able to close FF and re-open it later with my existing session even moving from one machine to another. And keeping everything in sync – passwords, bookmarks, etc. I was thrilled back when it came out because it finally gave me something to match the old Roaming support in Netscape 4.7.

So far I haven’t found a replacement for it. I’m using Foxmarks for bookmark sync and backup, but it only does bookmarks. Tab Mix Plus has some session persistence, but only on the same machine. I checked out Mozilla Weave but it is in the very early stages, and right now they aren’t accepting any more users anyway. Google has turned over the code via Google Code so someone may resurrect it in a new form. But in the meantime I’d love to hear there is a good replacement out there.

This was an especially bad thing to find out because during the upgrade I lost my current bookmarks and they reverted to a set many months old. Back when FF3 was in beta I’d installed it alongside FF2 and it imported my bookmarks. I’d since removed the FF3 beta from my system. But apparently the imported bookmarks lingered, and when I upgraded from FF2 to FF3 yesterday instead of importing my FF2 bookmarks it just used the old FF3 set, yet it seems to have completely removed any trace of my FF2 bookmarks from my system. So I’ve lost any new bookmarks I’ve added since then, and, of course, just last week I’d finally gotten around to cleaning up my bookmarks to delete a bunch and file them, and now all the junk is back and messy. Sure there is a nice copy stored in Google Browser Sync, but now I can’t get to them. Even if I reinstalled FF2 the add-on download is gone. (If anyone knows where I can get the XPI to install it, that’d be great.)

In general FF3 is a nice upgrade, despite the troubles, though I’m really not seeing what is so awesome about the ‘awesome bar’ (as some call the URL/Location bar in FF3). Even in FF2 I disliked the way it’d suggest pages from the history and I always lock that down to just pages I’ve actually typed – as below. If there are any other add-ons or configuration tweaks you think I just have to check out, let me know. Share your Firefox tips for everyone to see.

Some of the settings I tweak in about:config in FF3 (definitely not a comprehensive list):

At first blush the new design is nice, but it is going to take a while to get used to it. The old design was in place for so long that I new how to navigate it quickly to get to the pages I commonly used. Everything is moved around now, so I’ll have to get used to the new navigation. It looks like the whole site hasn’t been updated, if you poke around you’ll sometimes find yourself on pages with the old style, such as TiVo Rewards. Though it could be since the current TiVo Rewards program is being phased out anyway, they just didn’t bother to update that area of the site to the new style.

Overall, it is a dramatic change to the site, and I like it.

Until now, Safari has been restricted to MacOS X. But Windows is an increasingly important platform for Apple and, like iTunes before it, Safari has made the transition. Safari 3 seems to largely bring a number of Firefox features to Apple’s browser. Safari 3 gets movable tabs, which allows users to drag tabs to re-order them. Safari takes it one step beyond Firefox and allows you to drag a tab right off the browser, which opens the tab in a new window. That’s kind of nifty, I’d like to see Firefox add that.

Safari also gets real-time text searching within loaded pages, with the same Ctrl+F & Ctrl+G commands as Firefox. It works pretty much the same, only Safari is a bit cutesy-er about it.

A cool feature Safari 3 has which I haven’t seen in other browsers is resizable text fields. For example, the HTML ‘textarea’ that I’m typing this in right now, under WordPress, has a little ‘resize’ has in the lower-right corner. I can resize any of the textarea boxes that I encounter with Safari. That’s a nice little feature, as I’m often frustrated by the choices other websites have made in the size of the boxes they present for comments, etc.

Apple’s major marketing effort for Safari 3 seems to revolve around speed. They claim that Safari is the fastest browser available, rendering HTML up to 1.7 times faster than Firefox 2, 2.1 times faster than IE7, and 2.9 times faster than Opera 9. JavaScript execution is up to 1.9 times faster than Firefox 2, 2.8 times faster than IE7, and 1.1 times faster than Opera 9. And Safari 3 launches up to 1.2 times faster than Firefox 2, 1.3 times faster than IE7, and just a hair faster as Opera 9.

Of course, I recommend taking these figures with a grain of salt. Doing some quick ‘eyeball’ comparisons between Safari 3 beta and Firefox 2.0.0.4, I don’t see much, if any, speed advantage to Safari. It may well be slightly faster, but real-world results are sure to vary widely depending on the PC, what else is running, the network connection, and the specific pages being loaded.

Safari has the minimal user interface that Mac and iTunes users are familiar with. It may feel a bit sparse to those accustomed to more traditional Windows applications, which tend to have more color. Google is the default built-in search provider, with the option to select Yahoo! instead. Bookmark management is done in an interface similar to iTunes, so it is easy to adapt to it if you’ve used iTunes before.

Other features one expects to find in a modern browser are there – pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing (with the aforementioned movable tabs), auto-fill of form information, RSS reader, and the ability to flush personal data.

One thing I was expecting to find, but haven’t yet, is a way to secure stored data. Safari will save form data for the auto-fill feature, and it can also be set to store user names and passwords. The product site says it is“all stored in a secure, encrypted format.” With Firefox I can enter a master password which secures all of the stored, encrypted information. Someone would need that password to enable the auto-fill functionality. I don’t see a way in Safari to set a similar master password, and that seems to be a major oversight to me.

Another thing it doesn’t have, at least at the moment, which I would definitely miss, is the in-line spell-checking that Firefox provides. I’m typing this (and typed my last post) up in Safari, just to try it, and I’m already missing the confidence the in-line spell-checking gives me. Enough that I’m probably going to re-open them in Firefox to edit and make sure I didn’t make too many mistakes. (Update: More than I’d hoped…) There is an item in Edit -> Spelling -> Check Spelling While Typing, but it doesn’t seem to do anything. I’ve made deliberate errors to test it and they weren’t flagged. Hopefully that’s just something left to complete before the final release of Safari 3. That would be enough to keep me from considering it as my main browser. (Which is unlikely anyway, but I’m just saying.)

I’ve been a long time Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox user. I started using Netscape browsers when it was still around 0.9, and I used Netscape through 4.79. I switched to Mozilla Suite (aka Seamonkey) when they hit 1.0, and I stuck with that until a little bit after Firefox hit 1.0. I very much prefer the features and standards support of Mozilla Firefox, and I consider IE6 one of the worst things to ever happen to the web. I feel that IE6 single-handedly slowed down the evolution of the web by being such a bad client with such awful standards support, while dominating the market simply because it was the default on Windows. IE7 is a major improvement, but it isn’t enough yet in my eyes.

I’ve been doing web development, personally and/or professionally, since 1991. I’ve contributed to web standards such as HTML 4, CSS 2, and the WAI guidelines. As much as I hate the term ‘Web 2.0′, I’m excited about the recent revitalization of the web with the advent of AJAX applications, and the long, long overdue replacement of IE6. The new generation of browsers, such as Firefox 2, Safari 3, Opera 9, and, yes, even IE7, with their improved support for web standards and the addition of many newer standards, really open the door for interesting developments.

I’m unlikely to switch to Safari myself, as I use a lot of tools and extensions in Firefox (I’ll probably cover those at some point too), and I’ve been using it for so long it is second nature. But it is nice to have Safari on Windows so that, as a developer, I can test my work in another browser. That hasn’t been possible until now, without buying a Mac. Now developers who use Windows can test in all four of the major browsers, which makes life easier. And there is no excuse for not testing your work now. I think I would rank Safari as my second choice amongst the major browsers, after Firefox, followed by Opera, and lastly IE7.

Alex of TiVoBlog also recommended it, and the FeedSmith WordPress plug-in. Tonight I installed FeedSmith and setup both the main blog feed and the blog comments feed via FeedBurner. I’m also trying out some of their additional services – you’ll notice a new ‘Email Subscription’ form in the left column of the blog, and some new links along the bottom of each entry, both on the site and in the feed.

So far things look OK. If you have any feedback, leave a comment. Thanks.

I’ve been thinking about using FeedBurner for this blog’s feeds, but I’m undecided. I’ve never used FeedBurner myself, so I don’t know how people feel about it in general. Opinions?

As a geek, I love things like this! Seeing technology combine and produce new systems is fantastic to me. I love it when systems come together in mash-ups like this and produce something neat. Basically this is a script that runs in the Greasemonkey extension for Firefox that automatically looks at titles in your Netflix queue and searches from them on TiVo Central Online. If it finds them, it adds a link next to the title on the Netflix queue so you can have TiVo record it instead. Like so: Then you can drop the title from your queue and get something else.

I picked this up from PVR Wire @ TV Squad.