Google bets on Android future

Gaming and surfing on Google Android

But the company is going much further. At the end of 2007 it lifted the lid on Android, an open mobile operating system that is being used to power a new generation of devices under the Open Handset Alliance, a group which involves firms like HTC and chip designer ARM.

Android is the creation of Andy Rubin, Google's director of mobile platforms.

He believes that a lack of openness in the mobile phone space has stifled innovation to date.

"What Android enables for third party developers is the kind of programming we see on the internet," he says.

"What it enables is agility and rapid innovation and the same kind of innovation that happens on the internet."

Android was developed by former robot maker Andy Rubin

Mr Rubin says that by opening up the phones - from the operating system, released under open source, to the drivers and the application framework - developers will have more freedom to innovate, and more scope also.

But if you talk to Symbian and Microsoft, two companies that also build mobile operating systems, both claim to be open also.

Mr Rubin says: "There's a distinction we have to make - and it's an important one - between open source and open APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).

"APIs are essentially documentation, they're the way that somebody like Symbian or Microsoft will allow third party developers to develop for their platform.

"Open source is a mechanism by which the source code of the operating system is actually for free and that way the carriers and OEMs are not really locked into a single vendor, nobody really owns this.

"It means they are free to take it into the direction that's important to them; they can fix bugs, add enhancements so in the end the consumer has a better experience."

Mr Rubin believes this will lead to greater variety of mobile experiences - driven not by the rules and regulations of an operating system but by the ideas of developers.

In essence, it could lead to greater variety of phones and of what those phones are capable.

Google has formed the Open Handset Alliance, with manufacturing partners like HTC and chip designers like ARM.

At the Mobile World Congress earlier this month the first reference handsets running Android were on show.

The first Android phones are expected in the second half of 2008

The browser was responsive and driven by both touch and a mini-track ball.

Google Maps supported Street View, the ability to see stills of real world locations, which has not been seen on a mobile device before.

Mr Rubin says Android is running on a phone powered by a 300Mhz chip, which puts the device in the mid-range of smartphones.

"A lot of applications we are seeing on phones today, in some of the newest and most powerful phones, are doing internet style web browsing.

There should be nothing that users can access on their desktop that they can't access on their cell phone

"But that is just one of the components of the internet we need to bring to cellphones. There should be nothing that users can access on their desktop that they can't access on their cellphone.

Mr Rubin points out that not all net experiences are available through the browser.

"Applications like Google Earth and YouTube have specific functionality that hasn't yet effectively been brought to mobile.

"Up until Android that wasn't possible on the phone - you could only access functionality given to you by the operating system."

The iPhone is a great 1.0 product said Mr Rubin

This is not Mr Rubin's first foray into overturning the "natural order" of things.

A former roboticist and Apple engineer, he created Web TV, and the device which led to the pioneering Sidekick handset.

"One of my passions throughout my whole career is consumer products; making things my mom would use.

"That need wasn't satisfied doing robotics. that was behind the scenes factory stuff."

So what does he make of Apple's first phone to the market?

"It's a great 1.0 product; I use one.

"Apple has that great balance of being both a hardware and software firms so they have a lot of flexibility.

"One of the things that is a challenge for them is having an incredible footprint worldwide - there are different types of communications standards, regulatory issues, and different language issues.

"I'm hoping that doesn't limit them."

With about three billion people using mobile phones worldwide and the number of devices that can access the net climbing rapidly, the future of the web is definitely mobile. And with no one company dominating the mobile arena as yet, the race is very much on.

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Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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Google bets on Android future

Gaming and surfing on Google Android

But the company is going much further. At the end of 2007 it lifted the lid on Android, an open mobile operating system that is being used to power a new generation of devices under the Open Handset Alliance, a group which involves firms like HTC and chip designer ARM.

Android is the creation of Andy Rubin, Google's director of mobile platforms.

He believes that a lack of openness in the mobile phone space has stifled innovation to date.

"What Android enables for third party developers is the kind of programming we see on the internet," he says.

"What it enables is agility and rapid innovation and the same kind of innovation that happens on the internet."

Android was developed by former robot maker Andy Rubin

Mr Rubin says that by opening up the phones - from the operating system, released under open source, to the drivers and the application framework - developers will have more freedom to innovate, and more scope also.

But if you talk to Symbian and Microsoft, two companies that also build mobile operating systems, both claim to be open also.

Mr Rubin says: "There's a distinction we have to make - and it's an important one - between open source and open APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).

"APIs are essentially documentation, they're the way that somebody like Symbian or Microsoft will allow third party developers to develop for their platform.

"Open source is a mechanism by which the source code of the operating system is actually for free and that way the carriers and OEMs are not really locked into a single vendor, nobody really owns this.

"It means they are free to take it into the direction that's important to them; they can fix bugs, add enhancements so in the end the consumer has a better experience."

Mr Rubin believes this will lead to greater variety of mobile experiences - driven not by the rules and regulations of an operating system but by the ideas of developers.

In essence, it could lead to greater variety of phones and of what those phones are capable.

Google has formed the Open Handset Alliance, with manufacturing partners like HTC and chip designers like ARM.

At the Mobile World Congress earlier this month the first reference handsets running Android were on show.

The first Android phones are expected in the second half of 2008

The browser was responsive and driven by both touch and a mini-track ball.

Google Maps supported Street View, the ability to see stills of real world locations, which has not been seen on a mobile device before.

Mr Rubin says Android is running on a phone powered by a 300Mhz chip, which puts the device in the mid-range of smartphones.

"A lot of applications we are seeing on phones today, in some of the newest and most powerful phones, are doing internet style web browsing.

There should be nothing that users can access on their desktop that they can't access on their cell phone

"But that is just one of the components of the internet we need to bring to cellphones. There should be nothing that users can access on their desktop that they can't access on their cellphone.

Mr Rubin points out that not all net experiences are available through the browser.

"Applications like Google Earth and YouTube have specific functionality that hasn't yet effectively been brought to mobile.

"Up until Android that wasn't possible on the phone - you could only access functionality given to you by the operating system."

The iPhone is a great 1.0 product said Mr Rubin

This is not Mr Rubin's first foray into overturning the "natural order" of things.

A former roboticist and Apple engineer, he created Web TV, and the device which led to the pioneering Sidekick handset.

"One of my passions throughout my whole career is consumer products; making things my mom would use.

"That need wasn't satisfied doing robotics. that was behind the scenes factory stuff."

So what does he make of Apple's first phone to the market?

"It's a great 1.0 product; I use one.

"Apple has that great balance of being both a hardware and software firms so they have a lot of flexibility.

"One of the things that is a challenge for them is having an incredible footprint worldwide - there are different types of communications standards, regulatory issues, and different language issues.

"I'm hoping that doesn't limit them."

With about three billion people using mobile phones worldwide and the number of devices that can access the net climbing rapidly, the future of the web is definitely mobile. And with no one company dominating the mobile arena as yet, the race is very much on.

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Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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Facebook dismisses privacy fears

The firm's first overseas office will be located in London

Facebook's 40 million users should not worry that personal details will be available to anyone searching the net.

That was the message from executives at the social network who are in London to set up their first overseas office.

Facebook's plan to make user profiles available to search engines has provoked anxiety amongst some users and attacks from privacy campaigners.

But the firm's head of privacy said that the idea that personal data would be exposed was "completely wrong".

"The only data that will be available is your profile picture and your name - and then only if you agree that your profile should be searchable," said Chris Kelly.

Common sense

Facebook announced the move to open users' profiles to search engines such as Google in early September.

In addition, the firm has added a public search function to its site which will initially allow anyone, even if they are not registered with the site, to search for a specific person

At the time of the announcement, Om Malik, an influential blogger, wrote: "This is yet another small step in the overall erosion of personal privacy."

"We are slowly leaving digital litter all over the web, and some day it is going to cause problems."

But Mr Kelly insisted that the company offered new users plenty of advice on protecting their profiles from unwanted visitors, and 20% had changed their privacy settings.

But he said people had to use common sense: "You would not walk down the street with your mobile phone number written on your forehead, and you shouldn't do that on Facebook either."

Facebook had been working with the Home Office in Britain on child protection and privacy issues, he added.

Word score

Later this month Facebook will open an office in London's Soho, the first overseas operation for a firm whose 300 staff are mostly based in Palo Alto, California.

With 5.2 million users active in the last month, the UK is Facebook's fastest growing market.

Other sites are more popular than Facebook in the UK

It is attracting rather older users than in the USA, where it started as a network for college students. 54% of UK users are over 25, and the over-35s are the fast growing age group.

"The service is now incredibly diverse," said Chamath Palihapitiya, Facebook's Vice-President for Product Marketing.

"75% of our users are outside college - a significant majority are in the 30 plus age demographic. It's a social utility that has become very pervasive and useful for a wide variety of people."

Mr Palihapitiya also revealed that Facebook now aimed to have 60 million active users worldwide by the end of this year, having already passed its original 2007 target of 40 million users.

This year's rapid expansion has been partly fuelled by the opening up of Facebook to outside software developers in May.

So far they have created 3000 applications, and 80,000 developers around the world are working on new ones, in effect transforming the social network into an operating system for no payment.

Chamath Palihapitiya points to the two young Indian developers who have produced a Facebook scrabble game that is now amongst the most popular applications: "You have Fortune 500 companies doing this and you've got two kids in India. It's very empowering for the whole community."

Social battleground

But the big question for those developers and for the Facebook management is how to introduce more sophisticated advertising to the site, to generate more revenue without annoying users.

The Facebook executives are vague about their plans but it is clear they want to give advertisers more opportunities to target individuals according to their interests.

So someone who lists Forty year Old Virgin as one of their favourite films could find a trailer for Knocked Up popping up on their page.

While Facebook is attracting all the attention at the moment, it is worth remembering that it is still not the most popular social network in Britain.

That is either MySpace or Bebo, according to whether you believe Nielsen netRatings or Comscore.

But Nielsen is predicting that Facebook will overtake MySpace in the UK this month.

Social networking is now a very big business and the UK market is a key battleground.Damming concern Science icon Bitter memories

Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

Read More..

Facebook dismisses privacy fears

The firm's first overseas office will be located in London

Facebook's 40 million users should not worry that personal details will be available to anyone searching the net.

That was the message from executives at the social network who are in London to set up their first overseas office.

Facebook's plan to make user profiles available to search engines has provoked anxiety amongst some users and attacks from privacy campaigners.

But the firm's head of privacy said that the idea that personal data would be exposed was "completely wrong".

"The only data that will be available is your profile picture and your name - and then only if you agree that your profile should be searchable," said Chris Kelly.

Common sense

Facebook announced the move to open users' profiles to search engines such as Google in early September.

In addition, the firm has added a public search function to its site which will initially allow anyone, even if they are not registered with the site, to search for a specific person

At the time of the announcement, Om Malik, an influential blogger, wrote: "This is yet another small step in the overall erosion of personal privacy."

"We are slowly leaving digital litter all over the web, and some day it is going to cause problems."

But Mr Kelly insisted that the company offered new users plenty of advice on protecting their profiles from unwanted visitors, and 20% had changed their privacy settings.

But he said people had to use common sense: "You would not walk down the street with your mobile phone number written on your forehead, and you shouldn't do that on Facebook either."

Facebook had been working with the Home Office in Britain on child protection and privacy issues, he added.

Word score

Later this month Facebook will open an office in London's Soho, the first overseas operation for a firm whose 300 staff are mostly based in Palo Alto, California.

With 5.2 million users active in the last month, the UK is Facebook's fastest growing market.

Other sites are more popular than Facebook in the UK

It is attracting rather older users than in the USA, where it started as a network for college students. 54% of UK users are over 25, and the over-35s are the fast growing age group.

"The service is now incredibly diverse," said Chamath Palihapitiya, Facebook's Vice-President for Product Marketing.

"75% of our users are outside college - a significant majority are in the 30 plus age demographic. It's a social utility that has become very pervasive and useful for a wide variety of people."

Mr Palihapitiya also revealed that Facebook now aimed to have 60 million active users worldwide by the end of this year, having already passed its original 2007 target of 40 million users.

This year's rapid expansion has been partly fuelled by the opening up of Facebook to outside software developers in May.

So far they have created 3000 applications, and 80,000 developers around the world are working on new ones, in effect transforming the social network into an operating system for no payment.

Chamath Palihapitiya points to the two young Indian developers who have produced a Facebook scrabble game that is now amongst the most popular applications: "You have Fortune 500 companies doing this and you've got two kids in India. It's very empowering for the whole community."

Social battleground

But the big question for those developers and for the Facebook management is how to introduce more sophisticated advertising to the site, to generate more revenue without annoying users.

The Facebook executives are vague about their plans but it is clear they want to give advertisers more opportunities to target individuals according to their interests.

So someone who lists Forty year Old Virgin as one of their favourite films could find a trailer for Knocked Up popping up on their page.

While Facebook is attracting all the attention at the moment, it is worth remembering that it is still not the most popular social network in Britain.

That is either MySpace or Bebo, according to whether you believe Nielsen netRatings or Comscore.

But Nielsen is predicting that Facebook will overtake MySpace in the UK this month.

Social networking is now a very big business and the UK market is a key battleground.One year on Your pictures Voters' views

Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

Read More..

Pushing the PC gaming boundaries

The PC remains a big player in the games market but in recent years its cutting edge has been blunted.

The vast majority of games are still played on PCs rather than consoles; typically casual games played on cheap desktop machines or online games, such as World of Warcraft.

The industry is currently experiencing a renaissance in innovation as the trinity of new hardware, developer ambition and tools come together to improve experiences.

The introduction of chip technology with four cores, effectively quadrupling processing power, graphics cards using DirectX 10 tools and developers keen to push powerful machines to the limit are resulting in games which set new graphical benchmarks.

In some cases these machines are desktop behemoths; near supercomputers in a box that are delivering game experiences beyond the wildest dreams of console owners.

The latest games, like Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3, are taking advantage of quad core processors, and twin graphics cards. These are the play things of hotrod PC gamers - the enthusiasts who see their machines as customisable dragsters delivering the pinnacle of performance.

High end games PCs are important to the professional players

"PC gamers see themselves as the elite gamers," said Michael O'Dell, who runs the professional gaming group Team Dignitas and manages Birmingham Salvo, a team in the Championship Gaming Series.

"High end games PCs are important to the professional players and hard core because the extra processing power can make that millisecond of difference between success and failure, and whether you win prize money or not."

For the hardcore the extra grunt of the most powerful desktops improve the FPS (frames per second) in FPS (First Person Shooter) games.

"My gamers are always moaning about their FPS (frames per second). They always want more and some of the newest games are very demanding on the hardware."

For these gamers, whose reaction times put them in the superhuman category, more frames per second means a smoother experience.

So how much more powerful are these high-end PCs than the latest generation of consoles?

"It's absolute nonsense to think that consoles are at the cutting edge," said Roy Taylor, vice president of content relations at Nvidia, the world's biggest manufacturer of graphics cards.

"As good as consoles are, they are so far behind the PC gaming experience that there is no comparison.

Unreal Tournament 3 will help hardware sales

"In terms of raw processing power, the high-end PCs are at least three times more powerful."

Nvidia provides the graphics grunt for the PlayStation 3, while rival ATI provides the imaging hardware for the Xbox 360.

Mr Taylor points out that the latest graphics cards can draw twice as many pixels, twice the screen resolution, as a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.

The latest games are employing DirectX 10 tools developed by Microsoft, which are used by developers to get the best out of the high-end and middle-range graphics cards.

Mr Taylor said the new tools and the new hardware had given developers a library of effects to play with.

Nvidia's latest high-end graphics cards, the 8800 series, can easily produce graphical effects that tax the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, such as motion blur, depth of field and volumetric smoke.

Mr Taylor said: "Fog, smoke or mist in games until now have been flat and don't respond to objects. Volumetric effects mean they are dynamic - a helicopter can now displace cloud or smoke, or a character can step through the fog realistically."

But these sorts of effects come at a price.

A quadcore Intel machine with twin graphics cards and four gigabytes of ram - at the high end of the PC gaming experience - can cost more than 2,000, six times the price of an Xbox 360.

Nvidia's flagship graphics card, the 8800 Ultra, costs more than 400 although a cut-down version, the 8800 GT, costs from 120, about the same price as a Nintendo Wii.

Rival ATI also sends a high-end graphics card which supports DirectX 10, costing from about 120.

PC gamers love to "mod" their machines

Hardcore PC gamers also specialise in customising their "rigs", with unique cases and intricate cooling systems.

The gaming experience they deliver can be exceptional.

Playing Crysis with the screen resolution set at 1920x1200 with all effects switched up to very high and anti-aliasing turned on, the game is breathtaking to look at and puts consoles titles like Gears of War and Call of Duty 4 into the shade.

"We worked really closely with Intel and Nvidia and even had engineers from Nvidia on site for the last year," said Bernd Diemer, a producer on Crysis at developers Crytek.

"We wanted to be an early adopter. When we started Crysis the current hardware wasn't available or being planned. There was no DX10 or the latest graphic cards. They were not even on the drawing board."

They went to a special effects company in Hollywood to create a render movie of how Crysis could look - and that movie has been the benchmark for the firm.

"We got pretty close. In some areas we even surpassed it," said Mr Diemer.

He said PCs gave gamers the "best possible experience".

Crysis boasts realistic breakable environments - a goal of developers for many years.

"In some areas we have managed to set a new standard. We've managed to push it a bit further," he said.

Crysis is at the forefront of a wave that is delivering blockbuster titles to PCs and making console owners envious of their PC gaming friends.

"The PC is finally back up where it belongs," said Mr Diemer.

He added: "The innovation is happening on the PC; but that's always been the case."

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Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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Pushing the PC gaming boundaries

The PC remains a big player in the games market but in recent years its cutting edge has been blunted.

The vast majority of games are still played on PCs rather than consoles; typically casual games played on cheap desktop machines or online games, such as World of Warcraft.

The industry is currently experiencing a renaissance in innovation as the trinity of new hardware, developer ambition and tools come together to improve experiences.

The introduction of chip technology with four cores, effectively quadrupling processing power, graphics cards using DirectX 10 tools and developers keen to push powerful machines to the limit are resulting in games which set new graphical benchmarks.

In some cases these machines are desktop behemoths; near supercomputers in a box that are delivering game experiences beyond the wildest dreams of console owners.

The latest games, like Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3, are taking advantage of quad core processors, and twin graphics cards. These are the play things of hotrod PC gamers - the enthusiasts who see their machines as customisable dragsters delivering the pinnacle of performance.

High end games PCs are important to the professional players

"PC gamers see themselves as the elite gamers," said Michael O'Dell, who runs the professional gaming group Team Dignitas and manages Birmingham Salvo, a team in the Championship Gaming Series.

"High end games PCs are important to the professional players and hard core because the extra processing power can make that millisecond of difference between success and failure, and whether you win prize money or not."

For the hardcore the extra grunt of the most powerful desktops improve the FPS (frames per second) in FPS (First Person Shooter) games.

"My gamers are always moaning about their FPS (frames per second). They always want more and some of the newest games are very demanding on the hardware."

For these gamers, whose reaction times put them in the superhuman category, more frames per second means a smoother experience.

So how much more powerful are these high-end PCs than the latest generation of consoles?

"It's absolute nonsense to think that consoles are at the cutting edge," said Roy Taylor, vice president of content relations at Nvidia, the world's biggest manufacturer of graphics cards.

"As good as consoles are, they are so far behind the PC gaming experience that there is no comparison.

Unreal Tournament 3 will help hardware sales

"In terms of raw processing power, the high-end PCs are at least three times more powerful."

Nvidia provides the graphics grunt for the PlayStation 3, while rival ATI provides the imaging hardware for the Xbox 360.

Mr Taylor points out that the latest graphics cards can draw twice as many pixels, twice the screen resolution, as a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.

The latest games are employing DirectX 10 tools developed by Microsoft, which are used by developers to get the best out of the high-end and middle-range graphics cards.

Mr Taylor said the new tools and the new hardware had given developers a library of effects to play with.

Nvidia's latest high-end graphics cards, the 8800 series, can easily produce graphical effects that tax the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, such as motion blur, depth of field and volumetric smoke.

Mr Taylor said: "Fog, smoke or mist in games until now have been flat and don't respond to objects. Volumetric effects mean they are dynamic - a helicopter can now displace cloud or smoke, or a character can step through the fog realistically."

But these sorts of effects come at a price.

A quadcore Intel machine with twin graphics cards and four gigabytes of ram - at the high end of the PC gaming experience - can cost more than 2,000, six times the price of an Xbox 360.

Nvidia's flagship graphics card, the 8800 Ultra, costs more than 400 although a cut-down version, the 8800 GT, costs from 120, about the same price as a Nintendo Wii.

Rival ATI also sends a high-end graphics card which supports DirectX 10, costing from about 120.

PC gamers love to "mod" their machines

Hardcore PC gamers also specialise in customising their "rigs", with unique cases and intricate cooling systems.

The gaming experience they deliver can be exceptional.

Playing Crysis with the screen resolution set at 1920x1200 with all effects switched up to very high and anti-aliasing turned on, the game is breathtaking to look at and puts consoles titles like Gears of War and Call of Duty 4 into the shade.

"We worked really closely with Intel and Nvidia and even had engineers from Nvidia on site for the last year," said Bernd Diemer, a producer on Crysis at developers Crytek.

"We wanted to be an early adopter. When we started Crysis the current hardware wasn't available or being planned. There was no DX10 or the latest graphic cards. They were not even on the drawing board."

They went to a special effects company in Hollywood to create a render movie of how Crysis could look - and that movie has been the benchmark for the firm.

"We got pretty close. In some areas we even surpassed it," said Mr Diemer.

He said PCs gave gamers the "best possible experience".

Crysis boasts realistic breakable environments - a goal of developers for many years.

"In some areas we have managed to set a new standard. We've managed to push it a bit further," he said.

Crysis is at the forefront of a wave that is delivering blockbuster titles to PCs and making console owners envious of their PC gaming friends.

"The PC is finally back up where it belongs," said Mr Diemer.

He added: "The innovation is happening on the PC; but that's always been the case."

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Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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Google opens up social networking

News services

Developers will have wider distribution for their widgets

Google has launched a system that will allow developers to create applications for a variety of social networks.

Developers currently have to customise their designs for a particular site with many partnering with the hugely popular Facebook.

Google's OpenSocial system will allow a wider distribution for tools like Facebook's music recommendation service iLike and its Top Friends application.

It has long been reported that Google has big ambitions in social networking.

Last week it missed out on the chance to buy a stake in Facebook with the founders choosing instead to do a deal with Microsoft.

"Facebook-fear"

Google said that around a dozen social network partners had signed up to the system, including business site LinkedIn, Friendster and Google's own social network Orkut.

Developers already onboard include Flixster, iLike and RockYou.

Unlike Facebook, OpenSocial allows developers to write in normal javascript and html with only minor adjustments needed for the code to work on its platform.

According to blog TechCrunch the plan is likely to be a big hit with developers as well as Facebook's rivals.

"Developers have been complaining non stop about the costs of learning yet another markup language for every new social network platform, and taking developer time in creating and maintaining the code," wrote TechCrunch's Michael Arrington.

He is impressed by the number of social networks that have signed up so far.

"Facebook-fear has clearly driven good partners to side with Google," he wrote.

Technology writer Om Malik observed: "OpenSocial attacks Facebook where it is the weakest (and the strongest): its quintessential closed nature." Anger in Chad Not so tragic? Australian election

Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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