thechromesource – Google Chrome and Chrome OS News and Resources

The Multiuser Sketchpad – Social Doodling in the Browser

Posted on 27. Jul, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

In what may be one of the strangest – or awesomest – Chrome Experiements I’ve seen, longtime web experimenter Mr. Doob has come out with the Multiuser Sketchpad. Sure, it sounds pretty ho-hum when I put it in words, but this HTML5 based webapp is really cool once you try it out. Here is a fast-forwarded clip of a doodle.

The Multiuser Sketchpad reminds me of scribbling stuff on my desk in high school, but in a fascinating colloborative way. I’ll profess that I’m no artist, but some of the people who doodle on this really have some ability.

Experiments like this are just unbelievable. It’s really hard to describe what watching this is like, so just try it out yourself.  The web is going to further innovate with next generation browsers and cloud operating systems. It just makes every new social tool available to anyone. Go ahead, get your doodle on!

thechromesource Weekend: Links for 7/25/10

Posted on 25. Jul, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

Does Google need to buy Zygna in order to have leverage against Facebook?

ReadWriteWeb reports that users and developers alike will be the engine driving Google’s enterprise growth.

The new YouTube embed format checks your browser to see if it is HTML5 capable, otherwise it will play the clip in Flash.

Mashable has posted 10 behind-the-scene videos that are all about Google.

Although the cover design looks a bit Windows-like, “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Google Chrome and Chrome OS” will be out Aug. 3.

Inside Chrome 6: Video

Posted on 19. Jul, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

This article on video is part of a series of posts discussing the new features and technology that will come with the official newest release of Chrome browser – Version 6.

The rise of video on the internet is going to really change the web – although that has been said for years, it’s taking advances in broadband and browser technology for it to happen. We’re getting close, and the fact that Google TV is coming later this year with a version of Android and the Chrome browser on top, new technology in Chrome 6 will propel web-based video even further.

Chrome 6 will support the WebM standard, which runs on the recently opened-up video codec called VP8. WebM is supported by Mozilla, Opera and Google among other technology companies. The early beta of Firefox 4 is the first browser to support WebM.

Earlier this year, Google bought On2 Technologies, which owned the patent to VP8. Once the acquisition was made, several open source groups such as the Free Software Foundation asked Google to open up VP8, and they did. The On2 acquisition was big for the development of HTML5 video in newer generation browsers. With WebM, HTML5 video is run through an open standard, a process that in the past has been handled by Flash and a video technology called H.264, which is not open.

So what does this all mean? Improved quality of video as well as overall performance, no matter where you are. Plus, we’ll see more capability to mash-up, modify and generally edit videos in ways we probably have not yet even though of.

Need some proof? Consider this Chrome Experiment called “Destructive Video” by Sean Christmann. Although it uses the Ogg video codec instead (WebM just came out), you are able to break up a clip into pieces whilst the video is play. Also, check out the YouTube mobile site, which is HTML5-based and very snappy. Although the codec used here is H.264, the WebM format will be introduced as mobile devices get WebM, which Android is expected have implemented later on this year.

Webapps Vs. Native Apps – A Battle of Control?

Posted on 08. Jul, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

Yesterday’s launch of the new YouTube Mobile site (just go to m.youtube.com) further reiterates something that has been in my thoughts ever since the explosive growth in mobile apps started. This has really led to another way for large technology companies to wall off their users, much like Microsoft has done over the years. Even though it’s great that you can have a mobile application for virtually anything that you want in your pocket, there are some inherent limitations to these native applications.

TechCrunch’s Jason Kincaid makes a good point in his look at YouTube Mobile that the video quality is fantastic – better, he says than the native application that came with Apple’s iOS for the iPhone and iPad. That may have something to do with the fact that the webapp is built in HTML5 and optimized for the current wireless networks that devices use.

“Video on the HTML5 app looked much better, and was snappier to boot”, remarks Kincaid in his write-up.

All the more proof that giving browsers the ability to use the web as a platform to utilize applications is the future of computing, whether it be via a smartphone or a laptop. The idea of Chrome OS or other web operating system simply doesn’t seem so far-fetched.

One of the reasons that web applications have a clear benefit over native ones is interoperability. On the web, diverse applications are able to access and communicate data between one another in order to provide a seamless ecosystem. Think about Twitter, where users allow web applications such as HootSuite access to their accounts to better understand the underlying data. Or, as Kincaid remarks, the simplistic convenience of auto-fill in the YouTube Mobile app.

But what’s wrong with the way things are done now? We’ve seen both Apple and Google take take direct control of users’ devices. Even Amazon has removed books from its Kindle e-reader, citing copyright problems with a publisher. With the new browser technologies like HTML5, a third party cannot take away something that is on the web; and no developer or group of developers is dependent on an outside partner for its applications.

Sure, there are motives behind the decisions above in the face of security and potential lawsuits. Possible hurdles abound with what could happen in a world where applications are easily installed with one click. But Microsoft led a tech space for years that allowed people to put whatever they want on their computers, and despite their flagging performance, they’ve been around for over thirty years.

thechromesource Daily: Links for 6/29/10

Posted on 29. Jun, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

The folks on the Chromium project are serious about browser security, turning their focus now to extensions.

Will the rival service to Facebook, which may or may not be called Google Me, look anything like Orkut?

Google Apps for Education is proving to be successful; students may soon be spending more time with this than Microsoft Office.

It really not likely that Google would ever completely shut down their operations in China, they will just be patient.

HTML5 means speed: A Google staff engineer recently said they plan to use the technology so that Gmail loads in one second.

Chrome OS Boss Leaves for Facebook

Posted on 28. Jun, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

Chrome OS Engineering Director Matthew Papakipos has announced today on his Twitter account that he is leaving for Facebook.

“Now that Chrome OS & WebGL are in good shape, it’s time for something new. I’m going to work @ Facebook! Love the product and team. Woot!”

At least it’s nice to hear that Chrome OS is in good shape. One of the most memorable things that Papakipos did other than take the reigns of Chrome OS during its infancy was submit to a wide-ranging and lengthy interview with Ars Technica regarding the conceptual vision of Chrome OS. It’s really worth a read if you have not yet checked it out.

Papakipos had previously worked on HTML5 projects for Google. It seems as if this would be a big loss with Chrome OS looming in the fourth quarter for a launch, but Google has a stable of engineers on the project if you have ever taken a gander over to the Chromium.org site. Here’s hoping a replacement is named pretty soon.

Nevertheless, there is clearly something going on between Google and Facebook. It’s rumored that Google is planning to launch its own Facebook-like application, while Facebook could foray into real time or social search. It will be fun to watch these two companies try some things that their rival specializes in, and we’ll see how this battle shakes out.

thechromesource Daily: Links for 6/22/10

Posted on 22. Jun, 2010 by Jason Horton.

It’s official, Google Voice is open to the public, no invite needed.

One of the worlds leading PC manufacturers, Dell, is ‘in talks’ with Google over bringing Chrome OS to their line of netbooks.

Google’s long rumored music download service could bring you your music library in ways you’ve never experienced before.

Microsoft Windows banned from Google office computers. Citing security problems in the IE browser as the cause of the recent attack from Chinese hackers.

With all the hubbub about what HTML5 can do, it can be a bit daunting to try and understand everything about it. Google tries to make it a bit easier for you, with HTML5 ROCKS!

Google I/O Day 1: HTML5, Open Source Video and Interesting Apps

Posted on 19. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

While many expected big announcements at Google I/O, Day One featured mostly a build-up to what is expected to be much larger announcements at the second keynote that is happening tomorrow morning. Some of the rumors that have been heard about Android and Google TV did not come to fruition, at least for today.

A big revelation is the fact that Google’s $124.6 million purchase of video codec firm On2 will allow the company’s VP8 technology to be open sourced in a initiative known as WebM. This is going to be embraced by an array of web-centric companies, including Opera, Mozilla and Skype.

Some interesting web-based software companies were featured like the TV-Guide-ish Clicker.tv and MugTug, which is a browser-based image editing software that is powered by HTML5’s 2D canvas technology:

Heavily presented at today’s keynote were advancing technologies that are propelling the web. Interestingly, the CEOs of both Mozilla and Opera had a chance to talk and then the Chrome Web Store was announced which clearly will only be run within Google’s own Chrome browser and eventually Chrome OS.

We’ll be intently watching tomorrow, however, and keep posting updates as fast as we can.

Gaming Could be a Possible Growth Area for Google

Posted on 17. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

Last week, TechCrunch deftly pointed out that Google is on the hunt for someone to fill the role of Product Management Leader, Games. Currently, Google really does have too much going in the gaming market. It did, however, recently purchase LabPixies which creates widget-like games for the iGoogle portal as well as making games for Apple products, Android systems and social networking sites.

So the gaming arena could in fact be another engine of growth for Google, one that diversifies the company from advertising and its stated goal of profiting from enterprise cloud applications. If they move aggressively in this space, they may find themselves at an advantage when you consider that the console industry is now experiencing an overall decline in sales. More often than ever, multipurpose devices such as the iPad and smartphones allow people more flexibility to play video games without having to pay a lot of money for gaming titles. This is also true when you consider how successful some companies have become offering games on social networks.

Even some internal Google employees have ported a first person game like Quake II to the browser as one of their projects. Games are now capable of being ported over to HTML5 and run in the current generation of browsers, such as the Asteroids port that is available at the Chrome Experiments site.

Even OnLive, which plans on streaming games to your PC or television, will be launching this summer, allowing gamers to play their favorite titles from top publishers in an entirely new way. Although the bandwidth requirements may be quite high, OnLive is dubbing their service as “the future of gaming” which is most likely true.

Bottom line? There is a lot of room for Google to grow in gaming since their footprint right now is nascent. I would not be surprised if they would go with the now-classic free model that is supported by advertising, expertise that a mobile ad company like AdMob can lend to Google’s wealth of knowledge from utilizing AdWords on web sites and Apps like Gmail. That is, if the Federal Trade Comission ever approves the Google-AdMob deal.

What It’s Like to be a Successful Google Apps Software Company

Posted on 08. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

MindMeister is a company that provides a special tool for organizations called “mind mapping”. Being a software as a service company, it was logical for them to be included when the Google enterprise Apps Marketplace when it was launched last March. In this interview, I talk with MindMeister COO Michael Hollauf and CTO Till Vollmer about their software, the recent changes Google has made to Apps as well as what it’s like working with the search engine giant.

Can you tell me a little bit about MindMeister?

Michael: We’ve been online for about 3 years now.  About a month ago, finally, we launched on Google Apps Marketplace.  This came out of a relationship with Google.  It started pretty early on, almost three years ago now.  We realized the product we have fits nicely with what Google has.

It’s a nice add-on for their Apps.  I’m explaining more our relationship with Google.  Since our integration, we are doing more things integrated with the Docs.  We have a regular relationship with them.  It seems they’re really pushing Apps now with the introduction of the Marketplace and the enhancements to Google Docs.

Would you say your product is similar to something you would do in Visio or is it something out on its own?

Michael: Yes, it’s certainly something that’s on its own.  Visio is something that can draw everything. You can draw pictures, flow charts. I think we’re a subset. We focus on a subset of what Visio does.  We are very good at that.  Our software basically gives it all, focuses very quickly and doesn’t worry about the drawings, it just brings in all of your structures.

So, I think someone that uses our mind mapping product wouldn’t be very happy with Visio.  More similar to drawing in a PowerPoint presentation, something like that. It’s a similar space though. We often get requests for things like flow charts and so on. It’s all graphical, visual presentation. They have something in Docs which is now called Google Drawings with a separate bar.

Is this just something that is part of the Apps marketplace? I assume that your pricing model is set up so it’s a monthly user fee or something? Anything of that nature?

Michael:  Yes, it’s a monthly user fee. It’s a monthly fee per user or teams of users so you can have two people up to however many you want. You can pay by the month or can pay by the year. The way it works in Google Apps is they don’t have a billing infrastructure. So the way we do it, we let users sign up for free without even entering their credit cards. They just go to MindMeister in Apps and get a 30 day free trial.

If you want to upgrade, you can pay and purchase. That’s going to be the way it works until we launch billing. According to Google, it should be in a couple of months when  the users will only use their credit card once – when they sign up to Google Apps. Then they will be able to do everything at the Apps Marketplace: just add the app.

Better for us and better for users. They don’t want to enter their credit cards more than they have to.

I think that’s a fantastic idea. What are they getting out of setting up all of this entire infrastructure? Is it just that they’re getting the value of added features to Apps?

Michael: Yes, now that’s the only thing they are getting, but with the billing, they are going to take twenty percent I think it is.

Twenty percent of everything then?

Michael: Yes.

I ask these things because Eric Schmidt keeps talking about how a lot of revenue is going to start to come from this. There really hasn’t been an explanation, but that right there, when you’re dealing with percentage of fees per month that really adds up.  What they’re trying to do is get away from just advertising because you really have to diversify when you’re a company that large.

Michael: They still do 97% (something like that) or 95% just with advertising. So, they are searching for other ways for (revenue).

A few weeks ago there was an announcement that went out relating to some changes they’re doing (which included no longer supporting Gears).Is it just Docs? Maybe you guys could talk a little about that.

Michael:  It was just Docs with their announcement. We’ve had to find all sorts of explanations and guidelines for our users (about Gears). It works fine for older ones; it’s just not supporting the new ones. Now I think of all of the programs and suppliers will have to do the same thing. A lot of people use it and I think if everyone is persistent, it will send out messages that it (will not be) working anymore.

It seems a little strange to me because you’d think they’d have a solution ready to go.

Michael: Our users I think, it used to work better (same with all browsers, even Firefox). It doesn’t support it anymore and you can’t even install it anymore. There are other features as well.

Till: Obviously the drawing is one of the things that are new. There are a couple of changes to things, and the API as well. The big thing was the drawing actually.

Michael: I think there is one thing talked about that real time is not being liberated enough. With this EtherPad, a document could be worked on (with others) at the same time. You could do things in real time. Like when you typed in the character, it would show up on the other person’s screen like in the same second. The real time collaboration, I think that’s what’s built into Docs now.

Well, that’s great.  Could you tell me the name of that company again? I’ve never heard of this before.

Michael: Etherpad. I think it was two or three Google employees a year ago when they started that company.

It sounds like they’re trying to make collaboration better but at the same time, the offline access (via Gears) thing is a little distressing especially when you’re thinking about moving everything to the cloud, it seems there’s going to be some sort of solution through HTML5, right?

Michael: There’s an issue, yeah. I mean real time, I didn’t see anything about that in HTML5.  Is it http or something? Or some offline mode supported in HTML5?

So, they’re going to use HTML5 for that? I don’t think they have a choice, if you lose that functionality it just seems like a really bad idea. I think the cloud is a great thing but, what happens when you make these kind of changes?  And I just don’t know what kind of solution it’s going to be that all these companies now have to make all of these changes?

Michael:  That’s because all of us use these, really out of necessity. This is something that could happen with Flash, I don’t know.  Now we have to wait. It’s not a great situation but the market shows it’s a young market and technology is new. Otherwise, this is “growing pains”, I would say.

It’s just to be so disruptive in so many areas that they’re starting to do these types of things, to be honest with you. It’s just I hear a lot about all of the benefits but I think what most people are concerned about where this is going. The idea I think, when they started this was to compete with Microsoft but now it doesn’t seem like that what they want to do. Instead, it’s to be a compliment to that. Although I do think their solution is better.

Michael: I think in our discussions they never admit Microsoft is an issue for them. They’re more like “we’re trying to offer the best experiences and solutions to our users and if that hurts our competition, so be it”. I think it’s more not having to really talk about their competitors and so on. At least I think with Google Apps, that they’re trying to be the “next generation Office Suite”.

I think they’ll have a lot more to offer than Microsoft because of what they’re doing with you guys and all the other developers out there, that they have good ideas to make products better.

Michael: Great people are on it and (there is) a lot of enthusiasm. I haven’t really looked into Microsoft recently and what the rumors are about an online version of this. And because, sooner or later, they’ll have to go this way. All I’ve seen so far is some online office thing that allows you to share some uploaded documents with others but that’s all there is, right?

What about the people who are concerned about making the jump to the cloud?

Till: There are certain levels of security of course in (our) product. One thing is the channel hosting of the solutions in the computer to the data center and everything has access controls, cameras, access cards and all these kinds of things. Everything is redundant, their internet access of course, and the server part and all these kinds of things. So that’s the secure environment.

On the other hand of course, we offer for our premium customers encryption, so that the communication that is between the server and client is encrypted because a lot of people are working are just going there and connecting to their services and are often transmitting their plain passwords and this is not clear to all of them. That’s why we use SSL for the premium customers to not show their passwords somewhere or their passwords don’t get sniffed.

And on the application level, we have certain guard mechanisms where we protect certain actions people can do like password resetting, map access and personal data access.  Just two hours ago a customer called me up and said, “I want to use your product,  I was thinking about an in-house destination.”  I said, “we have a service solution, there is no in-house solution”.  They asked, “what about security?”

I think that it’s a good point that they ask this question.  The answer is very simple. I say, “Do you have a laptop?”  They usually say, ” Yes I have a laptop.”  I ask, “Do you have all of your personal data and all that stuff on your laptop?” They say, “Yes.”  So I ask, “What happens if someone just grabs it and runs?”  They say, “Yes you’re right.”  This isn’t going to happen with software as a solution because it’s much harder to hack into a T3 data center or get physical access into a data center than just grabbing your laptop.

Could give me an idea of who are your demographics when you’re talking about customers and who are the people that come to talk to you about these types of things?  If you could just give me an idea of what type of people we’re talking about – who are becoming your customers?

Till: When we started off, we were a European company and we had just implemented the English language and we always wanted to address the whole world market. It was always our goal when we started. We had about 30% US customers and, actually it’s the same number I think today and maybe even more.

Actually, now we support nine languages, including Japanese and Russian and with customers from about 140 countries working on MindMiester now, about a half million or so of them. We have five hundred thousand users and we have individuals and freelancers as well as a very large base of real business customers like SAP for example or Symantec. We even have Microsoft as a customer. Microsoft China, actually at an innovation center there.

It’s basically around the world from individuals to businesses. We have a lot of universities and schools.  This is in a lot of countries in terms of schools and universities in Shanghai or in Hong Kong or (even) in the US. So, that’s also the interesting thing. If you’re starting a business on the Internet there really is no real border anymore. It’s all about localizing the content and the user interface.

MindMeister is a software as a service. So we’re talking about something that runs in the browser. What tools have you used to create this, what technology are you running this on?

Till: So, basically we are using Ruby on Rails. We are using MySQL right now. We are using Apache for example, Linux as our platform. I think that’s it from the technology web we are using.

So do you recommend that your users have Chrome or Firefox? Or what is it about the browser that’s changing that? That’s going to help you guys? We touched on HTML5 and how you guys are working on it. Could talk a little bit about that?

Till: We made recommendations, we put out these for our users only. If they have to, we’ll continue to support IE6 for a little longer.  Firefox, Chrome, and Safari, these are all great and open really fast.

How many people are you in total?

Michael: Ten to twelve right now, with a couple of freelancers, not a huge company.

Is the plan then to just focus on this is another thing. Other companies I’ve talked with are working on several different apps.  Are you just going to focus on this?

Michael: For the time being, yes. We have discussions all the time. To the extent that they could go further? No concrete plans as of yet. The market is good for that. We’re in a really good position. I have so many ideas for this. I do want to start something else with that small group of people.

I have just one more question. Since the Marketplace has gone live, has it been a good tool in getting new customers? Has it been a marketing vehicle for you guys?  Have you seen a good influx of customers who’ve come through Google to connect with you guys?

Michael: Definitely, yes. So, I think it’s worth the effort to integrate to get a lot of exposure. Of course, you get new customers out of it, for us I think it’s a good thing. And, so, Google hasn’t really started to promote the whole thing. I had a call yesterday with them and they told us they would start promoting apps more aggressively.

Even so, they haven’t really started marketing. We already see the results.  We’ll see what happens if they really start pushing (Apps) through their distribution channels and through the marketing, etc.

Thanks to Michael and Till for taking the time to talk to me. You can sign up for a free basic membership of MindMeister to check out their mind mapping product.

thechromesource Daily: Links for 5/8/10

Posted on 08. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

ARM has created a Motorola Droid robot using Lego’s Mindstorm that is able to solve a Rubik’s Cube in twenty-five seconds.

Web document company Scribd, which embeds PDF files on web pages to keep documents secure, is moving from Flash to HTML5.

Chromium’s O3D technology will be moving from a plug-in to a JavaScript library, mainly because of the recent speed improvements.

Google has invested in Invidi, a TV advertising platform startup company and they plan work together selling ads on DISH Network programming.

KMWorld has a good article talking about how Google’s community fiber project is a great step for them to get into the enterprise market.

A Letter to Adobe Flash: At Least Consider Open Source

Posted on 01. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

Dear Adobe Flash:

We’ve had some great times together. Awesome videos, time-wasting games and websites with a ton of bright colors, which I have fully enjoyed. I’ve even spent some time learning how to program you. It’s been a great relationship. But something has changed, dearest Flash. The problem is not really you, it’s more me. And perhaps the rest of the web. You see, I really don’t know how to break this to you, but things change. People change. More importantly, technology changes.

Since you’re already offered up for free and huge amounts of people readily enjoy your technology, I just no longer understand why you are not open source. Sure, you can offer up mega-expensive tools to create for yourself if you want, but if you really desire to be a part of the new rules of internet architecture you’re going to need to do yourself a favor and open yourself up to the world.

This doesn’t really have to do with Apple’s relationship with you, because once you make Steve Jobs angry, it’s over. It more has to do with the odd juxtaposition of you paired with Google’s applications in Chrome browser and Chrome OS. The idea that Google has for these platforms is to be an open source alternative to what Apple and Microsoft offer in terms of architecture, but in their battle with these two, they have decide to include you as a closed-source participant in this rivalry. Even Android is expected to enter into the fray sometime in 2010.

Your biggest competition in this regard, HTML5, is available for anyone to use. Even Microsoft’s Silverlight is working towards having their technology as an open source platform, a baffling revelation to me since you should be trying to improve yourself before its too late and you have faded into something that we think of as once relevant.

Sure, maybe you don’t care what people think about you. But there are really no drawbacks to taking the plunge. Do you really feel that you have the resources to consistently protect yourself from malicious security attacks? We know you’ve had some problems with this in the past, and it’s only a matter of time before another “issue” comes up again. The only way Google feels comfortable going forward with you is if they integrate your technology into theirs so that the vulnerabilities you have can be patched as soon as they arise.

Well, at least with all the news coming out about you, I’m sure you’re at least thinking about it.

UPDATE: Please take the time to sign an online petition to open source Flash. It will take you thirty seconds. Thanks.

thechromesource Daily: Links for 5/1/10

Posted on 01. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission may be challenging Google’s acquisition of the mobile advertising company AdMob.

Puleen Patel writes about an interesting concept for Chrome as well as the overall web: co-browsing. I think it fits well with collaboration.

An update to Google Wave now allows users to blog live, which may give the workflow service a much-needed social networking component.

The Chromium Notes blog has a post up about a bug fix (and its challenges) that makes some JavaScript in Chrome about 20%  faster.

The Internet Explorer Weblog has a post talking about how HTML5 is the future of the web. IE9 will reportedly support HTML5.

thechromesource Daily: Links for 4/29/10

Posted on 29. Apr, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

The Graphic Mac has an article that runs down the various browsers available for Mac, saying they all suck expect for Chrome.

Synaptics has issued a press release for its Guesture Suite multi-touch features that will be coming for Linux and Chrome OS.

One of our partnership blogs, ChromeOS-Blog.com, has posted up a new “spring release” of Chrome OS for download.

The Google Apps Engine Blog has an interview with Jay Kyburz, who developed the web-based strategy game Neptune’s Pride.

Google has purchased Labpixies, which is an app publisher that primarily develops personalizations for iGoogle.

The Google Code Blog has case study guest post talking about what HTML5 can do for the development of mobile applications.

WPilot is a Browser-Based Multiplayer Space Shooter (No Flash Required)

Posted on 18. Apr, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

The Chrome Experiments keep coming.

The site, which is owned by Google, is a place where developers who are interested in creating new and interesting browser-based technologies can put up their latest ideas. There are some interesting mash-ups that take the web browser user experience to the next level – without using Flash. One of which is a port of the Asteroids game to the browser using HTML5.

This new nugget, called WPilot, allows players to fight one another in a game that seems eerily similar to the Asteroids game I mentioned before. Nevertheless, WPilot bugs and all is a sign that the browser will become the window with which we use for almost everything that is computer related – even multiplayer games.

WPilot uses HTML5’s canvas and audio elements, WebSocket API and WebGL although sound does not seem to be working for Chrome browser right now. Here are the browsers and their compatibility/performance with the game.

I’m still waiting for those Googlers to release a standalone version of Quake II for the browser that is multiplayer. I’m sure that they have it running by now; they’re probably just hoarding it. Ok, maybe “closed beta testing”. But you don’t create a Quake II browser port to play the game by yourself.

Anyways, check out WPilot. Right now the multiplayer servers are empty, so head over there because I need something to do for the rest of my night.

Play Asteroids in Chrome – Thanks to HTML5 Canvas and JavaScript

Posted on 08. Apr, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

Ah, the virtues of the HTML5 standard paired with JavaScript – so many innovative applications for it. Not to mention those applications that include gaming. Over on the Chrome Experiments site, an enterprising UK developer by the name of Kevin Roast recently release a browser-based port of the classic Asteroids game, where you buzz around in a spaceship and shoot asteroids and enemies that shoot back:

According to the notes included with game, this was created as a studious experiment in an attempt to learn how to use the relatively new HTML5 canvas technology.

With this and the news that some Google employees ported Quake II to the browser, these are great developments for gaming. No longer will users need to worry about downloading, system requirements and graphics latency, they can just use a browser to play games which no doubt will become more graphically complex as time goes on.

The Asteroids game works with Chrome, Firefox 3 and Safari 4 browsers. You can even download the source from the site as well if you’re interested.

Googlers Bring Quake II to the Browser

Posted on 03. Apr, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

A lot of good comes from allowing Google employees to spend twenty percent of their time at work on projects that they want to pursue. A case in point would be this video, which shows Quake II being run in Safari at a rate that must hover around thrity frames per second to look so good. the engine running this is WebGL and HTML5:

It must be nice to be on serious projects like this at work.

More info on the project:

Quake II to the browser.

In the port, we use WebGL, the Canvas API, HTML 5 <audio> elements, the local storage API, and WebSockets to demonstrate the possibilities of pure web applications in modern browsers such as Safari and Chrome.

The port is based on the Jake2 project, compiled to Javascript using the Google Web Toolkit (GWT). Jake 2 is a Java port of the original Quake II source code, which was open sourced by id software.

To make the Jake 2 code work with GWT, we have

• Created a new WebGL based renderer
• Ported the network layer for multiplayer games from UDP to the WebSocket API
• Made all resource loading calls asynchronous
• Created a GWT implementation of Java nio buffers based on WebGL arrays (to be ported to ECMAScript Typed Arrays)
• Implemented a simple file system emulation for saving games and preferences using the Web Storage API

Gmail Web App for iPad is Announced

Posted on 03. Apr, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

Yesterday Google announced a special version of Gmail on its mobile blog, a version that utilizes HTML5 in order to optimize the experience for iPad users. All anyone with the Apple tablet needs to do is head over to gmail.com and they will see their email in a format that best uses a tablet’s functionality:

You’ll notice that incoming emails are pushed off to one side, while selected messages are shown in a main column to the right. Also, the buttons in the application are sized for touch. This interface was actually first developed for smartphone users to be able to use Gmail, and has been ported to this new version designed for a tablet.

What is interesting to note is that instead of using an App Store-type of strategy for Gmail on the iPad, Google has gone ahead with their web app methodology. That’s because Google is more interested in allowing open content on the web as opposed to Apple’s strategy of creating a controlled, as some call “walled garden” approach. Indeed, there are other Google services readily available on the iPad such as YouTube and Maps.

With that being said, Google does have the Google Mobile App in the App Store, first released for the iPhone and available for the iPad if users are interested in voice search.

Nevertheless having more services that are strictly web-enabled allows Google to be more prevalent in all platforms – and will help them push their own initiatives for their own platform which will promote applications that are easily used on the web with no other software need that what a user already has.

Chrome Sounds Extension Uses HTML5 to Enhance Experience

Posted on 01. Apr, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

In fun jest as Google always does for April Fools, they have announced on the Chrome Blog the release of a Chrome Extension that will enhance a user’s audio experience while surfing the web:

“Taking an earful of inspiration from the HTML5 audio tag, we’ve spent the past few months deep in psychoacoustic models, the Whittaker-Nyquist-Kotelnikov-Shannon sampling theorem, Franssen effects, Shepard-Risset Tones, and 11.1 surround sound research to build a cutting-edge audio-driven user interface for our users, available through a new Chrome extension. With this extension, Chrome will provide audio feedback as you browse to web pages and interact with the browser”

I must say that the entire post “Unmuting the web with Google Chrome” sounds convincing if this were posted on any other day that April Fools. That is, save for the very last paragraph where they announce plans to also add support via an extension for the “olfactory experience” sometime in the future.

I installed the extension for the fun of it, and it certainly offers some audio, basically sound effects that make your Chrome browsing experience much more “musical”.