“Microsoft is building a new version of Internet Explorer that will support the HTML5 standard, opening the gates for developers to create more interactive Web sites,” Sharon Pian Chan reports for The Seattle Times.

“The company made the announcement Tuesday at its MIX conference for Web developers, saying a platform preview for Internet Explorer 9 is ready for developers to kick the tires,” Chan reports. “‘We’re all in’ for HTML5, said Windows division President Steve Sinofsky.”

“‘We are really happy to see Microsoft catching up on standards and implementing things developers really like to use,’ said Chris Blizzard, director of evangelism at Mozilla, which has been building HTML5 standards into Firefox over several versions. ‘We’ve been frustrated that it’s taken a long time’ for Microsoft, but we’re happy to see they’re doing it.’ Blizzard said Microsoft’s platform preview does not include some key HTML5 features, such as support for playing video and audio without a plug-in and a drawing feature called Canvas,” Chan reports.

One of the challenges Microsoft faces is that HTML5 would compete with Silverlight, Microsoft’s Web software for video and animation online,” Chan reports. “‘When it gets approved, it can replace [Adobe] Flash or Silverlight,’ said Matt Rosoff, analyst at Kirkland-based independent research firm Directions on Microsoft. ‘Silverlight reverses HTML5.’ For now, Microsoft is pushing both at developers at the conference in Las Vegas.”

Full article here.

Source: MacDailyNews

“As we approach the one-year anniversary of the launch of the iPhone 3GS, rumors are beginning to circulate about what we can expect from an iPhone 4G. One of the most-wanted, and most-speculated features for the next-generation iPhone OS is the ability to truly multitask between app,” Tony Bradley writes for PCWorld. “Past development and release cycles suggest that we can expect a new iPhone OS this summer.”

“The iPhone OS is already capable of multitasking–technically speaking,” Bradley writes. “Certain apps and functions already multitask. You can switch to email or calendar while a voice call is still connected in the background. You can listen to music from the iPod function while continuing to use other apps on the iPhone. The multitasking is there, Apple has just restricted which apps actually have access to it.”
[Read more →]

Nearly 40% of Blackberry users continue to prefer Apple’s iPhone as their next smartphone purchase, but a third of them would also switch to the Android operating system, according to the second smartphone brand loyalty survey conducted semi-annually via Crowd Science’s advanced research platform for online audience measurement. The Crowd Scientists also found Android users rivaling iPhone users in loyalty, with about 90% of each user group planning to stick with their current brand when buying their next phone.

Asked specifically if they’d swap their present phone for Google’s new Android-based Nexus One, 32% of Blackberry users said “yes,” compared with just 9% of iPhone users. This figure zoomed to 60% for users of smartphones not made by Blackberry or Apple.

“These results show that the restlessness of Blackberry users with their current brand hasn’t just been driven by the allure of iPhone,” said John Martin, CEO of Crowd Science, in the press release. “Rather, Blackberry as a brand just isn’t garnering the loyalty seen with other mobile operating systems.”

Crowd Science’s methodology applies rigorous sampling and research techniques to online populations, allowing for real-time results. Indeed, a significant event affecting the research – the debut of Nexus One on January 5 – occurred midway through the Dec. 24. 2009 to Jan. 21, 2010 study period. Rather than being a disruptive factor, however, the Crowd Scientists were able to measure how the launch affected the attitudes of respondents. For example, awareness of the Android operating system jumped six points – to 66% from 60%. Moving from awareness to familiarity, however, results were stable throughout the research period – at about 10% for all smartphone users excluding Android owners.
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“Judging from the order numbers, pre-sales are coming in at the rate of 25,000 per hour,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt blogs for Fortune.

“The folks who hang out at Investor Village’s AAPL Sanity Board are too impatient to wait for Appl to announce sales figures; they much prefer to work them out on their own — in real time,” Elmer-DeWitt reports.

“Entering the order numbers associated with their own purchases on a Google spreadsheet, they think they’ve cracked the code. As of 11:05 a.m. ET — two and a half hours after Apple’s online store began taking pre-orders — the group had received 15 confirmations with order numbers as high as 74,000 (the numbers don’t necessarily start at 0),” Elmer-DeWitt reports. “‘51,000 orders in two hours,’ announced Victor Castroll shortly after noon. He’s an analyst with Valcent Financial Group and an AAPL Sanity member.”

Full article here.

Source: MacDailyNews

“The Apple iPad has been available for pre-order for more than 24 hours now. Initial demand seems promising, although not everyone has embraced the concept of dedicating $500 or more to be an early adopter of a device that nobody really has all the details on just yet,” Tony Bradley writes for PCWorld.

“Not to sound like a broken record, but the iPad is a consumer device. Actually, as far as I am concerned anything with an Apple logo is–by default–intended primarily for a consumer audience,” Bradley writes. “Despite the passionate zeal of the Apple faithful, you won’t see any Fortune 500 companies lining up to dump Windows-based PC’s for Macs, or BlackBerry smart phones for iPhones any time soon.”

Bradley continues, “That said, the iPad–and other Apple devices–can be more than functional business tools as well. The following is a selection of apps that business professionals can use to transform the media-consuming toy into a productive business tool:”

• Salesforce Mobile
• Meebo
• Freshbooks

Full article here.

Source: MacDailyNews

“iPad apps are understandably in their infancy, but with the Apple iPad SDK already in developers’ hands they’ll soon be out in full force,” Michael Sawh reports for T3. “To fill the void, Apple has made the popular move of making the majority of the 140,000 iPhone apps from the App Store available to use on the iPad.”

Sawh reports, “We’ve picked out the iPhone apps that’ll make the most of their new tablet surroundings, selecting our favourites to make the smooth transition from iPhone to iPad.”

1. Skype
2. Photoshop
3. Time Crisis Strike
4. Sky Mobile TV (UK App Store, not available in US)
5. Asphalt 5
6. Gun Smoke
7. The Guardian
8. Tweetdeck
9. Playboy
10. iPlayerlist

Full article here.

Source: MacDailyNews

Apple iPad will pre-orders begin in the U.S. on Friday, March 12 at 5:30am PST / 8:30am EST at Apple Store online here.