Developer tools

Consider the blind mole rat. The evolutionary process has given these subterranean rodents, classified as the genus Spalax, massive teeth and tough claws for digging--and more or less zero eyesight. But blind mole rats still have eyes. They're just very, very small and so obsolete that they're now completely covered by a layer of skin. This is what's taught in biology classes as a "vestigial feature," along with other zoological examples, such as the human appendix, snakes' pelvic structures, emus' wings, and whales' hind leg bones.

Now, take a different kind of evolution: the constantly … Read more

LONDON--Countless developers use jQuery software tools today to build advanced Web sites and to ease the difficulties of spanning multiple browsers.

Starting in about two weeks, though, they will start being able to extend their reach to the fast-growing world of the mobile Web as well. That's when the alpha version of jQuery Mobile is planned to be released, jQuery founder John Resig told attendees of the Future of Web Apps conference here today.

JQuery is a library of pre-written JavaScript code that browsers can download when loading a Web site. JQuery Mobile is an extra option geared to … Read more

Google fired back at Oracle yesterday in their dispute over Java, claiming that Oracle had once criticized the licensing policies it now seeks to uphold.

The formal answer to Oracle's complaint over Google's alleged infringement of patents related to Java made its way into the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California late yesterday evening. Oracle, wielding patents it acquired along with Sun Microsystems in 2009, claimed in August that Google's implementation of the Dalvik virtual machine in Android--among other things--violated as many as seven patents.

Google responded by denying Oracle's claims of … Read more

Google plans to use Chrome as a tool to reform the Web by encouraging use of a technology the company says will reduce data-transfer delays.

The technology, called False Start, has the potential to reduce one round of back-and-forth communications between a browser and a Web server when establishing an encrypted connection. That's a significant time savings--about 7 hundredths of a second for communication across the United States and 1.5 tenths of a second from California to Europe.

Even better, unlike many protocol improvements that could improve communications, it doesn't even require changes on both sides of … Read more

It turns out there was more to Google's WebM technology than just a plan to revolutionize Web-based video. The company also wants to revolutionize still images on the Web with a new format called WebP.

Google plans to announce the new WebP graphics format today along with its research that indicates its use could cut image file sizes by 40 percent compared to today's dominant JPEG file format. That translates to faster file transfers and lower network burden if Google can convince people to adopt WebP.

WebP, like JPEG, lets its users trade off image quality for file … Read more

"We just released an API!" are usually words that make my brain glaze over like a Krispy Kreme doughnut. But in the case of Tubemote, which now has its own API, there's some very neat stuff going on behind the scenes that turns the Web-based remote control service into a full-fledged remote control platform for other sites.

Tubemote's primary function is letting people utilize a cell phone or spare computer as a way to control YouTube video playback on another machine. The service acts as an intermediary, letting the person who's in control do a … Read more

Adobe Systems released a preview version of its widely used Flash Player plug-in that catches up to newer trends in Web browser development: 64-bit designs and support for the newly Internet Explorer 9 beta.

The new Flash beta, code-named Square, is available for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux, siad Adobe's Paul Betlem in a blog post today. The download is on Adobe Labs; note that if you install Square, you'll have to manually update it on your own.

The move isn't a big surprise--in June, the Adobe said 64-bit Flash is a "top priority"… Read more

For those who make typefaces, there haven't been many changes since the invention of the printing press: hot lead, electronic typesetting, desktop publishing.

But now, more than 15 years after its invention, the World Wide Web is finally becoming the next frontier.

The steadily gaining influence of the medium and a new technology for distributing fonts to browsers has led one of the biggest names in typography to embrace the Web in earnest. On Tuesday, Monotype Imaging will open a catalog of nearly 8,000 of its fonts, with more to come, for use on Web pages.

Monotype Imaging's Web font service drew 15,000 users in beta testing with a smaller set of 2,200 fonts, but now it's launching for mainstream use.

When it comes to typography on the Web, "that world has been stunted," Monotype Imaging Chief Executive Doug Shaw said in an interview. "We look at it as a very important evolution in adapting typefaces to this new world."

Well, not new exactly, but new to the font industry. To date, most Web designers have relied on a strained combination of:

• A few "Web-safe" fonts such as Verdana and Arial that can be expected to be installed on most computers. • Text rendered in graphics formats such as JPEG. • Adobe Systems' Flash Player plug-in that offers polish but that's somewhat isolated from the rest of a Web page.

The arrival of Web fonts is an important milestone in the development of electronic media. The future of reading is text on screens--whether a book on a Kindle, a magazine on an iPad, or a news app on a mobile phone. Bringing that era to browsers is essential to making the Web as polished as other electronic media and as the print publications it's often supplanting.

Making the case for Web fonts Monotype Imaging is betting that businesses will see Web fonts as worth the new expense to their Web budgets. There are several potential reasons. … Read more

For Stanford University student Feross Aboukhadijeh, what started off as a bet fueled by youthful ambition and technical bravado, ended up an Internet hit and quite possibly a job.

Last week, Aboukhadijeh, 19, was just an ordinary, albeit talented, college student as he tested out Google Instant, the Web giant's new predictive search results feature. He was immediately impressed on its debut Wednesday but also inspired. To his roommate, he said, "I bet you I can build YouTube Instant in an hour." And his roommate took him up on the bet.

Aboukhadijeh didn't quite make the … Read more