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Mozilla announces first release of Web Apps Project ​

By Jose Vilches, TechSpot.com
Published: March 7, 2011, 9:00 AM EST

Mozilla is taking its first step toward building an ecosystem of web apps and challenge both Google and Apple with a completely open alternative. Details are pretty sketchy at the moment but the company has announced a first developer release of its Web Apps Project along 17 demo applications, stable APIs, developer utilities and documentation to help people get a jumpstart on building Web Apps.
There isn't a lot to see yet. The demos are basically just links to other websites and don't include any particular design tweaks to make them feel more app-like. However, eventually Mozilla plans to add native browser controls, OS integration, and mobile device syncing. The video below provides a teaser of the kinds of functionality users can expect from Mozilla's Web App Store, which includes things like launching applications with a single click, enabling them to interface with certain websites, or creating widgets to get updates from your favorite sites.



Mozilla's project is a strike back at the notion that mobile and web apps should be device or platform specific and served up from walled storefronts. Therefore, as opposed to the Chrome Web Store and Apple App Store, Mozilla's approach is platform-agnostic, and will serve-up web-based apps for any device or browser that supports HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and other widely implemented open standards -- avoiding interoperability, portability and lock-in issues.

 

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Google: Libya has cut off the Internet completely
By Emil Protalinski, TechSpot.com
Published: March 4, 2011, 2:28 PM EST

Libya has followed in the footsteps of Tunisia and Egypt. If you've been following the events in the Middle East, you'll realize that this means shutting down the Internet in the hope that it will stop protests against the government.
It looks like Libyan officials today cut off the Internet completely, at least according to Google's Transparency Report. Here's how the search giant describes the tool: "This tool provides information about traffic to our services around the world. Each graph shows historic traffic patterns for a given country/region and service. You may select a country/region and then choose a service to view each respective graph. Graphs are updated as data are collected, normalized, and scaled in units of 0 to 100. By showing outages, this tool visualizes disruptions in the free flow of information, whether it's a government blocking information or a cable being cut."

A few weeks ago, Libya blocked access to Facebook, Al Jazeera, and other websites. This was quickly followed by turning off the Internet. Traffic has completely flat-lined today, according to the above graph provided by Google.

Libya's dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, has controlled the country for more than 40 years, since 1969. This is longer than both Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (1987 to January 14, 2011) and Egyptian dictator Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak (1981 to February 11, 2011). Libyans want Gaddafi ousted like the dictators in Tunisia and Egypt.

 

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Apple: you must be at least 17 years old to use Opera ​

By Emil Protalinski, TechSpot.com
Published: March 3, 2011, 11:00 AM EST

This week, the Opera web browser became the first non-native browser made available in Apple's Mac App Store. While Apple approved the browser, it still managed to hurt its competitor by putting this ridiculous label on it: "You must be at least 17 years old to download this app."
Opera has reacted in good humor. "I'm very concerned," Jan Standal, VP of Desktop Products for Opera Software, said in a statement. "Seventeen is very young, and I am not sure if, at that age, people are ready to use such an application. It's very fast, you know, and it has a lot of features. I think the download requirement should be at least 18."

The company then offered a workaround for those under 17: just visit opera.com and download it yourself. "We do not ask for your age or your credit card number," an Opera spokesperson pointed out. "Please, get your parents' permission before using this browser."

Remember the big hoopla around Apple blocking alternative browsers on iOS? Cupertino finally had to give up because the legal system got involved. On the Mac, Apple couldn't simply block third-party browsers from the platform because they've been available for years. Still, the company wanted to make Opera look worse than Safari, and this is apparently the company's solution.

 

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Gmail messages being restored after bug ​

By Jose Vilches, TechSpot.com
Published: March 1, 2011, 8:02 PM EST

Google has issued an update on the recent Gmail snafu saying that it has successfully begun restoring data from offline tape backups and promising to get everyone back to normal soon. The company explained in a blog post that while it maintains several electronic copies of every email sent through its system, this particular glitch destroyed every electronic copy of affected emails, and getting them from tape backups is what makes the process take so long.

Google also reduced its estimate of affected users from 0.08% to 0.02%, which is a relatively small number, but given the service's millions of users it still means some tens of thousands were affected. The company is expected to provide credit to affected business customers as per the terms of its service level agreement.

As usual, the Internet giant is posting a detailed incident report outlining the corrective actions being taken to help fix the issues and prevent it from occurring again at the Apps Status Dashboard.

 

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Couple holds first Skype wedding

By Emil Protalinski, TechSpot.com
Published: March 7, 2011, 8:00 AM EST

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Samuel Kim and Helen Oh, both 27, were to be married in California until the groom got a lung infection, putting him in the UCI Medical Center hospital in Orange. The duo had friends and family members coming from their native Korea as well as from New York to their planned wedding ceremony in the southern California city of Fullerton. Instead of postponing the wedding, however, the two turned to Skype.
"Guests said it was inspirational, they really admired my fiancé for being able to stand at the altar in the manner that she did, alone and not crying the whole time," Kim told Reuters. "She was able to hold her ground and I was able to hold my ground, not crying or anything."
Oh admitted the Skype wedding was not perfect, but agreed that the guests were happy. "He said he will make up for it, he promised me he's going to be the best husband in the world," Oh said. "He felt really terrible that he wasn't there."
Kim began spitting up blood last week and was initially too nervous to tell his bride for fear of causing her grief. He eventually told Oh, and the couple decided "the show must go on" and that their best solution was to use the VoIP service.
Five live cameramen at the couple's high-tech Korean church allowed the 500 guests to watch on large monitors with split-screen images and for Kim to watch on a laptop in the hospital's isolation ward. The hospital is less than 10 miles from the church, and Kim said he did not feel distant from the ceremony. An audio crew gave Kim his cue before his face was to appear on screen. Kim expects to leave the hospital this week.