Google Makes Web Pages Load Instantly The Chrome browser will soon silently fetch pages as you scan search results so that they load without delay.

Google is ready to make waiting for Web pages to load a thing of the past—at least for those pages found using its search engine and the company's Chrome browser. As a user peruses the list of results returned in response to a query, the browser will fetch and load in the background the page it considers most relevant. If a person does click that result, the page will load instantaneously.
The new feature, called Instant Pages, will appear in Chrome and Google's mobile browsers in "coming weeks" but can be experienced today in the developer version of the browser, or later this week in the beta version (the Chrome browser is automatically updated). A video showing the new feature in action has been posted on YouTube.
"We all have broadband, but loading a Web page is still nothing like flipping channels on your TV," said Amit Singhal, Google's head of search ranking, when he announced the new feature today at an event in San Francisco. "We will not be happy until loading a page is as fast as flipping pages in a magazine."
A year ago, Google introduced Instant Search, which loads results live as a person types into the search box. Google studies show that by reducing the time it takes to enter a query, the feature shaves two to five seconds from most searches, said Singhal. He added that Instant Pages could shorten the process of searching for and loading a Web page by a further five seconds.

New Language for Programming in Parallel Writing code for the latest multicore chips is notoriously tricky, but a new language could make it simpler, and make computers more efficient in the process.

A new programming language has been designed to get the most out of the latest multicore computer processors. If it finds favor among coders, it could provide more powerful software for many computers.
Over the last few years, as they've run up against the physical limits of miniaturization, microchip makers have shifted from increasing the power of processor cores—the part of a chip that handles data and instructions—to adding more cores to a single chip. For example, Intel's i3 and i7 processors have two and four cores, respectively.
This presents a challenge for programmers. Since most programming languages were designed for single-core chips, it can be tricky to divide tasks up and send them to each core in parallel. If a coder isn't careful, this can cause errors in the way that each core in the chip accesses the shared sections of memory.
Tucker Taft, the chief technology officer and chairman of the Boston-based software company SofCheck, designed the new language—called Parallel Specification and Implementation Language (ParaSail)—specifically for writing software for multicore processors. The language is intended to avoid the pitfalls that typically happen when working with multicore chips.
To a programmer, ParaSail looks like a modified form of Java or C#, two leading languages. The difference is that it automatically splits a program into thousands of smaller tasks that can then be spread across cores—a trick called pico-threading, which maximizes the number of tasks being carried out in parallel, regardless of the number of cores. ParaSail also does the debugging automatically, which makes code safer. "Everything is done in parallel by default, unless you tell it otherwise," Taft says.
Over the next decade, the number of cores on computer chips is expected to increase even further. "There are some machines out there with dozens or hundreds of cores now," says Taft.
ParaSail uses a number of other tricks, some that draw on languages developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s for supercomputers—machines running many individual computer chips networked together. "The design of the language itself is essentially complete," says Taft, who presented details of the language on Wednesday at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention. "The first version of the compiler will be released in the next month or so." The language will work on Windows, Mac, and Linux computers.
Microsoft and Intel are putting $20 million into adapting existing languages for multicore processors, so it's difficult to say if ParaSail will become widely adopted. "There are a lot of people chipping away at the problem, taking existing languages and trying to make them better at handling parallel processing," says Taft.
Taft already has a proven track record in the world of computer language development, says Denis Nicole of the Dependable Systems and Software Engineering Group at Southampton University. But he adds that "it usually takes companies the size of Sun to push new languages on the community."

Stick-On Electronic Tattoos A flexible electronic device stuck on the skin could provide irritation-free monitoring of heart, brain, and muscle activity.

Researchers have made stretchable, ultrathin electronics that cling to skin like a temporary tattoo and can measure electrical activity from the body. These electronic tattoos could allow doctors to diagnose and monitor conditions like heart arrhythmia or sleep disorders noninvasively.
John A. Rogers, a professor of materials science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has developed a prototype that can replicate the monitoring abilities of bulky electrocardiograms and other medical devices that are normally restricted to a clinical or laboratory setting. This work was presented today in Science.
To achieve flexible, stretchable electronics, Rogers employed a principle he had already used to achieve flexibility in substrates. He made the components—all composed of traditional, high-performance materials like silicon—not only incredibly thin, but also "structured into a serpentine shape" that allows them to deform without breaking. The result, says Rogers, is that "the whole system takes on this kind of spiderweb layout."
In the past, says Rogers, he was able to create devices that were either flexible but not stretchable, or stretchable but not flexible. In particular, his previous work was limited by the fact that the electronics portions of his designs couldn't flex and stretch as much as the substrate they were mounted on.
The electronic tattoo achieves the mechanical properties of skin, which can stand up to twisting, poking, and pulling without breaking. Rogers's tattoo can also conform to the topography of the skin as well as stretch and shift with it. It can be worn for extended periods without producing the irritation that often results from adhesive tapes and rigid electronics. Although Rogers's preliminary tests involved a custom-made substrate, he also demonstrated that the electronics could be mounted onto a commercially available temporary tattoo.
The prototype was equipped with electrodes to measure electric signals produced by muscle and brain activity. This could be useful for noninvasive diagnosis of sleep apnea or monitoring of premature babies' heart activity. It also might be possible, Rogers says, to use the tattoos to stimulate the muscles of physical rehabilitation patients, although this use wasn't demonstrated in the paper.
To demonstrate the device's potential as a human-computer interface, Rogers mounted one of the tattoos on a person's throat and used measurements of the electrical activity in the throat muscles to control a computer game. The signal from the device contained enough information for software to distinguish among the spoken words "left," "right," "up," and "down" to control a cursor on the screen.
The device included sensors for temperature, strain, and electric signals from the body. It also housed LEDs to provide visual feedback; photodetectors to measure light exposure; and tiny radio transmitters and receivers. The device is small enough that it requires only minuscule amounts of power, which it can harvest via tiny solar cells and via a wireless coil that receives energy from a nearby transmitter. Rogers hopes to build in some sort of energy-storage ability, like a tiny battery, in the near future. The researchers are also working on making the device wireless.
Ultimately, Rogers says, "we want to have a much more intimate integration" with the body, beyond simply mounting something very closely to the skin. He hopes that his devices will eventually be able to use chemical information from the skin in addition to electrical information.

Google's Vision for TV Proves a Turnoff

Google's hopes of becoming a force in television by releasing software that brings Web video and other online content—including ads—to the small screen appear to be fading fast. In recent months, stores and distributors selling one flagship Google TV device returned more of them than they sold as consumer demand fell.

That embarrassing statistic appeared in a July 28 earnings announcement released by Logitech. The announcement covered the fiscal quarter ending June 30. The company's Revue set-top box was announced in partnership with Google when the search giant introduced its TV software last October. Sony was also part of the launch, and sells television sets with Google TV built in.

But Google TV devices have gained little traction. They launched to poor reviews citing them as difficult to use, and met opposition from broadcast and cable networks wary of the Web content might undermine their hold on viewers. Competition from less expensive machines from Apple and Roku, as well as from game consoles, has been intense.

Logitech chairman and acting CEO Guerrino De Luca told analysts that Google TV has "not yet fully delivered on its own promises." His company had already cut the price of the Revue from $299 to $249. Now the price will be slashed to $99, on par with Apple and Roku's Internet TV devices. Logitech has other challenges, such as distribution problems in Europe that led to flat revenues. However the first Revue price drop and the returns cost Logitech $34 million, and contributed to the departure of De Luca's predecessor, Gerald Quindlen.

Google TV is not finished, though. Apple TV soared in popularity after a similar price drop last September, and Google says it's not giving up. "We launched Google TV with a firm belief that bringing the power of the Web into the living room will significantly enhance the television experience," a spokesman said in a statement. "We believe in this now more than ever."

A new version of Google TV will soon be released for new and existing devices later this summer. These devices may come with a simpler interface (consumers and reviewers have complained that the current version is too complicated).

Google appears to have long-term plans, too. It recently acquired SageTV, which makes software to turn a personal computer with a TV tuner card into a media center capable of recording, pausing, and streaming shows to devices around the home. Observers said Google bought the company more for the talent of its management team than its product, but it will take more time to apply that expertise to new software.

Is Your Internet Connection as Fast as You Think It Is? An FCC report says ISPs don't always deliver the speeds they promise, but they're getting better at it.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission released its first comprehensive study of broadband speeds across the United States on Tuesday. The study revealed that many Internet providers still advertise speeds higher than they deliver.
The report, "Measuring Broadband America," was commissioned as part of the FCC's efforts to promote improved broadband services across the United States. According to the Internet networking company Akamai, the U.S. ranks 14th in the world in terms of average Internet speeds, behind the Czech Republic, Latvia, and Belgium. Some U.S. ISPs have also been criticized for delivering Internet speeds that are lower than those advertised to users. The new report suggests that most providers now operate within 20 percent of their advertised speeds, even during peak hours; that's an improvement over the figures recorded in a 2009 report from the FCC.
The report also quantified the effects on home broadband connections of peak-time Internet traffic, which happens between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. While fiber-optic connections were barely affected, cable and DSL users saw decreases of about 5.5 percent and 7.3 percent in download speeds, respectively.
The report highlights two metrics as most indicative of broadband service quality: throughput, measured in megabits of data per second (Mbps), and latency, measured in milliseconds, which is the time it takes for information to travel across a segment of a network. On faster networks, the effects of latency are proportionately more noticeable.
While other reports, including that of Akamai, have taken a wide view of broadband use around the world, this study offers a more in-depth examination of services in the United States. Shane Greenstein, a professor of management and strategy at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, says this kind of report is needed. "We did not have a mature electricity industry until everybody agreed on how to measure use of electricity. And we cannot reach a similar state in our broadband industry without a similar agreement. This is a big step towards that, even though we still have a longer conversation in front of us."
The report is the result of a collaborative study with 13 major ISPs, including Comcast and Verizon; academics and other researchers, including from MIT; and consultants and consumer organizations. SamKnows, an analytics company, was selected to administer the FCC's broadband performance testing initiative.
According to the report, the FCC examined 6,800 homes and "conducted 13 different tests in each home, multiple times per day, over several months, to produce more than four billion data points from more than 100 million tests of broadband performance."
The report also quantifies the connection speeds required by consumers for various tasks. For basic Web browsing—"accessing a series of Web pages, but not streaming video or using video chat sites or applications"—a speed of one Mbps is sufficient, says the report, which also found that after 10 Mbps, there's no significant increase in page download speeds for basic Web browsing.
Sascha Meinrath, director of the New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative, points out that some providers seem much better at delivering their promised speeds than others. "This study is indicative of the need for some sort of truth in ISP advertising," he says.
Meinrath also says that because the FCC did not release this data in advance, his group and other third-party researchers are only now beginning to review the data. He expects thorough analyses to take a few days.
A statement by FCC chairman Julius Genachowski summed up the FCC's perspective: "I expect broadband providers will look closely at the data we're releasing today and ensure they're providing accurate, relevant, and easily understandable information to consumers about their services. Providers should be aware that this survey isn't intended as a one-time thing."

Cracking Open Chrome OS

Today at Black Hat, a computer security conference in Las Vegas, researchers described how they were able to steal data from Chrome OS, an operating system built by Google that requires the user to do almost everything via the Web. By using the operating system's Web-based design against itself, the researchers were able to get access to users' names and passwords, and even banking information. While the specific vulnerabilities they exploited can be closed, the researchers say there is no way to block the broader threat.
Google has touted Chrome OS as a revolutionary approach to computing, and emphasized its security. Since applications run on the Web, users won't run out-of-date software, which commonly leaves them open to security vulnerabilities. The system is also automatically updated, and little is stored on the user's computer. If a malicious piece of software tries to get onto a Chrome computer, Google can remotely restore the operating system to a pristine state. These aspects should make it less vulnerable to viruses and other threats.
But the researchers, Matt Johansen and Kyle Osborn, from the Web application security company White Hat Security, demonstrated that moving to the Web comes with its own set of dangers. "There is no access to the hard drive, but we don't care," says Johansen. "We're after information. We're not trying to build a botnet on your Chromebook."
The pair used common hacking techniques. They were successful almost immediately with a method called cross-site scripting. This involves injecting a Web page with code that runs in the browsers of visitors to the site. The code then performs malicious tasks on those visitors' machines.
Chrome OS is designed to limit the damage this technique could cause. It does this via a technique called sandboxing, which is meant to prevent what's happening in one browser tab from affecting another. Johansen and Osborn used cross-site scripting to attack Chrome OS's browser extensions, which typically add new functionality.
In Chrome OS, extensions are more powerful than in other browsers, and aren't subject to the same sandbox rules as browser tabs. That's because they exist, in part, to provide functions that affect multiple tabs. "You're talking about a super pared-down version of the operating system," says Osborn, "and they're trying to rebuild functionality through extensions."
The researchers found that extensions can get broad access to what's going on in users' browser tabs. As such, someone could use them to steal usernames and passwords, cookies, and browsing history information, including information that comes from sites that don't have vulnerabilities themselves.

Five Ways Apple Should Spend Its $76 Billion

Last week, Apple reported that it now has reserves of $76 billion in cash, short term securities and long term securities. As many wags pointed out, that's more than the cash-strapped U.S. government has left. On Tuesday, Apple also briefly surpassed Exxon Mobil to become the world's most highly valued company, at more than $340 billion in stock-market valuation.
With tens of billions of dollars to throw around and super-high investor confidence, shouldn't Apple reinvest in some cutting-edge R&D that could make it even more successful?
Apple has already shown the value of introducing unique new technologies for its products: the iPhone's advanced touchscreen and the MacBook's one-piece aluminum case, for example. Apple has also begun bringing CPU chip design and production closer to home, giving it another technological advantage.
So it wouldn't be a stretch for Apple to spend some of its cash on bringing new technologies into existence that competitors couldn't touch. Never mind buying Hulu or some other company. Here are five ways could Apple actually invent the future, and thwart other makers of phones, tablets, and computers.
5. Color screens that work in the sunshine
As much as I love printed books, I'd much rather tote a skinny little iPad for my on-the-go reading. But here in sunny Los Angeles, I can't see the color screen when I try to read outdoors. There's no way to read a book on a tablet at the beach, or in the park.
Of course mobile displays for reading in direct sunlight are already available, such as those on Amazon's Kindle, but they're only black-and-white, and they refresh at a painfully slow, page-turning speed. Now that a large chunk of my media consumption is in color, these displays don't cut it. Surely a daytime color display isn't impossible. With Apple's spare cash, could a breakthrough be around the corner?
4. Wireless network quality
Before Steve Jobs unveiled the original iPhone in 2007, he and his company pulled off a feat most pundits would have considered impossible: They got AT&T to change the way its voicemail system worked. Instead of forcing users to listen to all messages in order—a throwback to cassette-tape answering machines, and also good for getting customers to run up their minutes—the iPhone let its users view all messages onscreen at once and play only those they tapped.
But iPhone owners still complain bitterly about the quality of wireless service. AT&T drops calls, and Verizon won't let you make a voice call and use an Internet app at the same time. The audio quality of voice calls on any phone, through any carrier, seems to have gotten worse rather than better. If Apple could fix these issues, iPhone calls could become a premium feature rather than a joke. It might require a multi-billion-dollar investment in wireless network infrastructure, but we know who's got the money to spend.

Time Inc. Magazines Coming To a Tablet Near You

Time Inc. today announced that it'll be bringing all 21 of its magazine brands to tablet form -- that means Android Honeycomb tablets (along with the iPad and webOS TouchPad).

We've been enjoying the likes of Sports Illustrated on our smartphones and tablets for a while now -- the tablet version is excellent -- and seeing more titles added only makes Android tablets stronger.

In addition, Time Inc's penned a deal to bring subscriptions and single-copy sales to the Barnes & Noble Nook Color. Fortune, People, Sports Illustrated and Time will roll out later this month, with the other publications to follow by the end of the year.

Apple Now Going After Motorola Xoom in Europe

BRINGING SAMSUNG down wasn't enough for fruit themed phone maker Apple.Apparently it is also suing Motorola in Europe over the Xoom tablet's design.


The news comes after it emerged that Samsung has been forced to remove its Samsung Galaxy 10.1 from the shelves due to its similarities to Apple's Ipad.
When it filed for this injunction, it seems Apple also filed a complaint with the same court over the design of the Motorola Xoom tablet.

Apparently, Apple filed a complaint with the same court, the district court of Düsseldorf, over the design of the Motorola Xoom. However, it doesn't state whether that complaint included a request for a preliminary injunction.


While it's not stated explicitly, it is likely that the complaint against Motorola also asks the court for a temporary EU-wide injunction.
Apple and Motorola are currently suing each other over more than 40 US patents.
Apple's dispute with Motorola began in October 2010, but so far it was not known that it has also branched out to Europe, like Apple's

Eric Schmidt of Google Comments on Legal Suits Against Androids

At the Google Mobile Revolution conference in Tokyo yesterday, Eric Schmidt, former CEO and still Chairman of Google, had some choice words to say about all the "fruity" litigation that has been assailing Google and its OEMs lately. He said,

"We have seen an explosion of Android devices entering the market and, because of our successes, competitors are responding with lawsuits as they cannot respond through innovations. I’m not too worried about this.”

When asked specifically about the newest set-back with the ITC ruling against HTC in Apple's patent lawsuit, Schmidt remained confident and responded,

“We will make sure they don’t lose, then.”

In regards to the explosive growth of Android, Schmidt expects that to continue and sees Android as becoming the most popular platform in Asia due to lower prices brought about by increased competition. He added,

“Every month, China and India are adding 10 million mobile subscribers and we expect to see amazing growth in markets with lower penetration rates such as Indonesia and the Philippines. Smartphones used to be just for the elites in Western markets. But now that prices are coming down, we can make this technology more accessible for the 5 to 6 billion people [that could not previously afford such devices]”

He further indicated that Using Moore's Law coupled with Android's open system, prices for Android devices should continue to drop, and may go as low as US$50 to US$70 eventually. Schmidt also shared that he predicts that smartphones will overthrow PC adoption for many users in emerging markets and will overtake it in 2012.

Even though he didn't get specific as to how Google will help HTC in their current predicament, it's great to see someone directly from Google indicating publicly that they intend to back their OEMs. It would appear we are just seeing the beginning of a legal war of epic proportions very soon. And, it also looks like we are only seeing the beginning of an Android world-wide market domination

Samsung Galaxy R Officially Outed for Asia and Europe

The Samsung Galaxy R has been given the "official" treatment by Samsung and will be coming out in Asia and Europe. We have been hearing about this device for a few of weeks now, and pretty much already knew this was coming. Still, the device is a pretty impressive mid-range device and can almost compete with it's more powerful sibling. Here is a refresher of the specs:

• NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor
• 4.2-inch Super Clear LCD display
• 5MP rear and 2MP front camera
• Android 2.3 with Samsung’s TouchWiz interface

Flash Player for Android Gets New Security Update; Available Now

Adobe seems to be constantly dealing with security vulnerabilities and other issues with Flash Player, creating updates almost weekly now. They released another one today, version 10.3.186.3, that has several fixes and enhancements.

• Enabled NEON optimizations for OMAP4 (Cortex A-9) based devices.
• Corrected an issue on the Samsung Galaxy S where H.264 video at resolutions of 720p and below was not displayed.
• Fixed an issue where app packaging would fail for Android Apps using Flash Player in WebView that set android:hardwareAcceleration to True in their AndroidManifest.xml.
• Fixed a crash on the HTC EVO that some users encountered with specific video.
• Fixed an issue that caused video frames to stop rendering on long streaming videos (> 1 hour) on some Motorola devices.
• Fixed an issue where touch events were getting delayed with Kongregate.com games.
• Fixed an issue where games on Kongregate.com freeze when users exit from Full-Screen mode.

It's a shame there are unscrupulous folks out there that make it necessary to constantly fill holes in software, but at least this update seems to have some other fixes as well. Kudos to Adobe for trying to play "plug the dam with your finger."