Hmmmm. This does look peculiar.

On current iPhones running OS 1.1.4, and in the iPhone Simulator included with the iPhone SDK, nationalgeographic.com renders with a picture of a cheetah and the message “This presentation requires Flash. Download free Flash player.” On the keynote-demonstrated iPhone 3G, however, the site renders the same cheetah image without the “This presentation requires Flash” message. Interesting.

Firefox 3.1 (Shiretoko) planned features draft - Mozilla Links

While the concept looks kinda nice, I’m still not convinced that this is a useful approach. I do think that Mozilla’s mobile concept of “infinite space” is much more useful as we continue to open more tabs simultaneously.

Visual tab switching and tab searching/filtering were both tried for Firefox 3, abandoned for other more critical features, and are being considered for 3.1. Ctrl+Tab, a extension developed by Dao Gottwald implements both of them displaying a thumbnail of the opened tabs when pressing Ctrl + Tab to switch tabs.

Of course, being a new Opera guy this is the top news of the day. I’ve now completely switched from Firefox to Opera. I’ll post how I have mine setup soon.

Opera Software today released to the world the final public release of its flagship Web browser, Opera 9.5. Opera’s cross-device expertise, support for open Web standards and commitment to speed and performance culminate to create the most powerful Opera browser yet. Making its desktop debut in Opera 9.5, Opera Link blurs the boundaries between computers and mobile phones by enabling a seamless Web experience from device to device. Opera 9.5 for Windows, Mac and Linux systems is available free from www.opera.com.

Opera Desktop Browser 9.5 is Final - Take your stuff with you - Download Squad

The latest version of Opera has some features that 9.2 didn’t have though, so here goes nothing:

• Opera Link - Hardcore users of Opera use features like speed-dial, note taking, and of course bookmarks. Now you can sync them with your mobile if you use the very popular Opera Mini browser on your phone.
• Quick Find - search for anything on any page you’ve visited.
• Updated skin - This is the one that made us wonder if Opera is has re-invested themselves into the Desktop market. The buttons are sharper and it’s more Firefox like now.
• Opera’s Fraud Protection - This got an update. Opera likes to talk about how they guard you against phishing and spamming, and say they’re the only browser with these features built in.

Coming Tuesday, June 17th: Firefox 3

It’s going to be a great release.

After more than 34 months of active development, and with the contributions of thousands, we’re proud to announce that we’re ready. It is our expectation to ship Firefox 3 this upcoming Tuesday, June 17th. Put on your party hats and get ready to download Firefox 3 — the best web browser, period.

Firefox Mobile Concept Video

Brilliant article describing Mozilla Lab’s work toward their mobile browser. Lots of interaction design tidbits such as:

The biggest different is that with Expose, the spatial relationship between windows is broken every time the windows reshuffle. With the spatial view I know that the tab I want is down and to the left, whereas that mapping doesn’t exist using Expose. It’s an important distinction that helps the user to feel comfortable in the space and not get lost.

Completely agree. I think we are going to see iPhones on other US carries with the next model.

Now that Apple and AT&T have squeaked out of the deal, what’s holding the two companies together? Certainly some would say that it’s that oft-mentioned exclusivity agreement the companies signed, but I don’t know of one person who actually read the thing and no one really knows if Apple can get out or not.

• iPhone 3G: Without a doubt the new iPhone is going to be announced and very likely be made available. The new features:

  • 3G Wireless
  • GPS
  • Front camera for video chat.
  • Double the flash for the same price points.

• New and renamed .Mac: consensus seems to be around me.com. A lot of things should be new in .Mac. Probably many will be related to calendar and address book syncing with the iPhone. Hopefully a push email option will also be available.

• MacBook Pro: Probably will be announced but available in July. Features:

  • New square keyboard similar to the regular MacBook and the Air.
  • Faster processor based on the Montevina platform.

• Snow Leopard: To be released in January 2009, this version is rumored to be focused on “stability and security”

• MacBook Air with 3G: Completely going out of the limb here, but I think it’s possible (yet improbable) that we will see a MBA with 3G wireless like the iPhone. The new version will have a bit more RAM and hard drive and cost $1899. The current version will get a price drop to $1699.

Of course, the aluminum MacBook is missing in these predictions mainly because I’ve been wrong about its imminent launch for a whole friggin year. So in a way, I want to be wrong again so I can buy it before I leave to Oslo. Sadly, I think that Apple is going to push the new MacBook Pro’s initially and then announce the MacBooks close to August.

In any case, as Garcia Marquez once wrote:

He who awaits much can expect little.

Which basically means no new MacBook for me!

The software demoed by Google yesterday shows an advanced, usable and very polished user interface. Features such as:the drag down status bar and the gesture-based unlock are things I wish my iPhone had. No other interface has done that in the last year.

This is not an “iPhone Killer”, evidenced by Google’s own perception of the iPhone as expressed by of Vic Gundotra, Engineering VP:

“I think the iPhone is just a world-class device with a great Web browser that delivers in many respects on one of Google’s key goals: To bring the Web to the mobile device”

Android is going to be what the rest of the world uses. Google seems to have created the PC Compatible equivalent for the mobile era. While it may not be as elegant and perfectly integrated as the iPhone, its openness and price (free) will allow it fill the space that the iPhone doesn’t cover and even out-innovate Apple in these areas.

And where does Microsoft fit in all of this? Nowhere. At least not in the consumer space. Windows Mobile will continue to defend it’s corporate stronghold. But it’s already sharing this market with Blackberry devices. A third player (either Google or, gasp, Apple) coming into corporate market is not good news at all.

Yesterday I said that the next few years are going to be exciting for the Desktop. In the case of mobile devices, the next few months are going to be even more exciting.

The issue for me is that unlike mobile or “flat” devices the usefulness of a touch interface over keyboard and mouse is debatable. Yes, it’s very cool to pinch a picture to change its size. But is it quicker or easier than holding the corner of the window with the mouse?

For me the OLPC version 2 concept was a real eye opener. I now see a touch-screen based keyboard as part of the evolution of the PC hardware. As soon as a good enough way to provide feedback on the screen is introduced, a screen based keyboard will appear. Hard clicks keyboard purist will be up in arms, but even current Apple keyboards provide minimal feedback in a very thing package.

We still need to see what is Apple’s approach to the technology on the PC. Unlike Microsoft they understand that current desktop interfaces aren’t optimized for anything else than mouse and keyboard (I’m looking at you Tablet PC). In any case, with Windows 7 coming in 2010, it sure looks like the next few years are going to be exciting once again in the UI department.

<blockquote>
    <p><span class="caps">IMHO</span>, Opera Mobile 9.5 is even better than the iPhone’s Safari browser because I can perform functions like text selection, copy and paste, manage passwords, and save or send images from a web page.</p>
</blockquote>


<p>Cool features include:</p>


<blockquote>
    <p>However, Opera Mobile 9.5 takes that experience to the next level with quick context-sensitive zooming (called Opera Zoom), fluid finger scrolling and panning, multiple tabbed browsing, ability to save pages for offline viewing, fast page loading, Flash Lite 3 support, and more.</p>
</blockquote>


<h2>Mobile Social Networking</h2>


<p>Seems that a lot of people are using Opera Mini for social networking. As noted in the Opera <a href="http://www.opera.com/mobile_report/">State of the Mobile Web</a></p>


<blockquote>
    <p>Almost 40% of traffic worldwide is to social networks. In some countries, such as the United States, South Africa and Indonesia, the social Web accounts for more than 60% of the traffic.</p>
</blockquote>


<p>I find this very interesting. Specially since I don&#8217;t find social networking sites design that optimized for smaller screens.</p>

<blockquote>
    <p>It&#8217;s an education project, not a laptop project.</p>
</blockquote>


<p>In any case, I believe that a new computing experience designed from the ground up for learning is a good idea. And I completely agree with the <a href="http://radian.org/notebook/sic-transit-gloria-laptopi">Sugar team leader</a> , regarding where the actual innovation needs to take place:</p>


<blockquote>
    <p>The core mistake of the present Sugar approach is that it couples phenomenally powerful ideas about learning — that it should be shared, collaborative, peer to peer, and open — with the notion that these ideas must come presented in an entirely new graphical paradigm. We reject this coupling as untenable.</p>
</blockquote>


<p>In other words, don&#8217;t throw out the whole Taskbar, Windows, Desktop, etc interface. Just use that as a base to implement your <cite>powerful ideas about learning</cite>.</p>

If you are the proud owner of a Helio Ocean, Fin or Mysto, you have the honor of being the first to enjoy push Gmail on your cellphone.

All in all, Facebook chat is a great addition to the service. To paraphrase one of our commenters, Facebook chat maybe won’t replace your other chat applications, but it’ll do just fine for chatting with people who you usually don’t chat with.

About 10 percent of the people who shopped at AmazonMP3 in February were previous Apple shoppers, NPD said.

Asus has done a brilliant job of updating an already great product. The engineers have clearly listened to all the comments regarding the original Eee PC and attempted to put them right. The 1,024 wide screen makes the Eee PC 900 a joy to use, especially if you spend a lot of your time in a browser window. The extra memory and storage are also very welcome additions, and help make this version of the Eee PC a real alternative to a fully featured notebook.

However, when asked if they would rather keep their MacBook Pro or return to using their familiar ThinkPad, only three chose the ThinkPad; the rest decided to keep the Mac laptop and obtain VMWare Fusion licenses to run Windows when necessary.