Filed under: World wide web Tools, Developer

Even though Google’s Chrome browser is currently only available to Windows users (unless you’re running an Intel-based Mac and VMWare Fusion or Parallels), its WebKit underpinnings mean that Safari, and other WebKit-based browsers, can benefit from Google’s code.

One of the more massive innovations of Google Chrome, the V8 JavaScript engine, is incredibly fast. The WebKit project has its own new JavaScript engine, SquirrelFish, used in Mobile Safari and the WebKit nightlies. Still, the code base for V8 along with the Skia graphics library are making their way into the main WebKit repository. The Skia graphics library may already be in some of the newest nightly builds.

What does this mean for Mac and Safari users? Superficially, it might mean very tiny for right now, however, the Safari team can select to implement any of the Chrome features that have been added back to the repository. That’s the beauty of open source.

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Filed under: Software, Other Events, Internet, World wide web Tools, iPhone

Are you excited for the Sept. 9 press event? Do you like to play bingo? Are you an iPhone application developer? Then this post was delivered from on high directly to your visual cortex.

We’ve played bingo here on TUAW before. Who could forget iPhone Bingo or MWSF 2008 Bingo? Those were good times. This day, Ernst-Jan Pfauth at The Next Web wants to create a Let’s Rock! bingo game, and he needs your help.

Forget PDFs, he wants a full iPhone application, and has posted some possible mock-ups on his site. It would be fun to play collaboratively over Wi-Fi or even upload additional cards for future events.

A web-based version is available here, but let’s help Ernst-Jan realize his dream. iPhone developers — can you give the guy a hand? And while we’re at it… speaking of “limited utility…”

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Filed under: Video, World wide web Tools

A while back we noted that Amazon was planning to bring its video on demand service to the Mac. Well, it looks like they’ve finally flipped the switch because the service is now live.

Much like iTunes, they’re selling Television shows as well as offering movies for buy and rent. Unlike iTunes, it’s a streaming rather than a download service. Fortunately, they’ve got a number of free videos which will give you a sense of the quality of the service (which requires Flash).

Frankly, I’m a massive fan of Amazon MP3, so it’s good to see Amazon getting into the video business as well to put a little more competitive pressure on iTunes. I’m doubtful, however, that it will really affect the iTunes juggernaut.

[via electronista]

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Filed under: Software, World wide web, World wide web Tools

Sandvox is the WYSIWYG web editor from Karelia that’s won praises from users and the design community (including an Apple Design Award) alike. You can read our previous coverage here.

This week, Karelia has released version 1.5, which offers a slew of changes. You can use Sandvox to publish to any webhost (including FTP, SFTP and MobileMe) or create a blog. The pro version lets you edit the HTML and both the pro and basic version include attractive templates that you’ll actually want to use. Changes to version 1.5 include

• Major improvements to media processing, making it easier than ever to create and publish multimedia and media-intensive sites
• Improvements to all pagelets, including an enhanced Contact Form and a brand new YouTube pagelet
• Seven all-new designs, plus enhancements to other designs, bringing the total to 50
• New blogging features, including a Collection Archives pagelet to superior manage and display older entries, automatic navigation links between entries, and “continue reading” links to superior manager longer entries

There’s much more, and you can read the full release notes here. As we said, Sandvox is a very nice tool for people who want to put up a page or site with no fuss. Sandvox requires Mac OS 10.4 or later, is a Universal Binary and comes in both pro ($79US) and standard ($49US) versions. Version 1.5 is a free upgrade for registered users.

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Filed under: World wide web Tools

Google is developing a new web browser built from the ground up and based on WebKit, the same rendering engine that Safari uses.

The browser, called Chrome, is open-source software built with security, compatibility and speed in mind. Each tab in the browser will be its own separate running process. For example, if JavaScript hangs in one tab, the other tabs will remain unaffected. The approach is similar to the way Mac OS X isolates applications in their own private areas to prevent one crash from taking down the whole system.

Google picked an interesting way of announcing the project: They commissioned illustrator Scott McCloud to draw a 38-page comic book about the project, and distribute it under a Creative Commons license. The result is a very readable, fascinating way to learn about the new browser.

For web developers, Chrome will include strong Gears integration, and a JavaScript virtual machine that generates super-fast machine code out of JavaScript instructions. For end users, it will include a new start page that lists the last several pages and search terms you’ve used. It also includes a private browsing mode.

Google is planning on formally launching the project on Wednesday, but the Chrome website isn’t visible to the public yet. Update: Google is releasing a version for Windows tomorrow, with Mac and Linux versions coming soon, once Chrome is “faster and more robust.” (Thanks, Bryan!)

[Via Macworld]

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Filed under: iPod Family, iTS, World wide web Tools, iPhone

Here’s something to look forward to. The band Snow Patrol have announced the pending release of their first “interactive album,” A Hundred Million Suns, for iPhone and iPod touch via the iTunes Store.

So what’s “interactive” about it? According to the band, users will be able to access content like lyrics, additional images and artwork plus video from the iPhone and iPod’s touchscreen. The album’s project manager called it “…a digital booklet that’ll take you into the videos and content.”

Sounds like a fun way for musical artists to take advantage of touch technology. Anticipate A Hundred Million Suns to be released in October.

[Via Steve Rubel]

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Filed under: iTS, World wide web Tools, App Store

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the sorry state of global search in iTunes. Basically, the iTunes Store has grown so massive that it’s difficult to find what you’re after. Type something into the search field and you’ll see results for albums, podcasts, movies, Television season, apps and more. Stop the insanity!

iphonexe is offering a solution for the App Store. They’ve got 3,000 titles sorted by category. Enter the name of your target application and you’re brought to a results page with a summary, version number, screenshots and an App Store (sponsored) link.

They’ve also got a directory of jailbroken apps which works the same way. It’s not the solution I’m looking for, but does limit search results to iPhone/iPod touch apps.

[Via MacNN]

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Filed under: iPod Family, iTS, World wide web Tools, iPhone

Here’s something to look forward to. The band Snow Patrol have announced the pending release of their first “interactive album,” A Hundred Million Suns, for iPhone and iPod touch via the iTunes Store.

So what’s “interactive” about it? According to the band, users will be able to access content like lyrics, additional images and artwork plus video from the iPhone and iPod’s touchscreen. The album’s project manager called it “…a digital booklet that will take you into the videos and content.”

Sounds like a fun way for musical artists to take advantage of touch technology. Expect A Hundred Million Suns to be released in October.

[Via Steve Rubel]

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Filed under: Internet, Internet Tools

Google Gears has been around for Firefox on the Mac for quite a while. However, Safari users have been left in the cold. Google Gears grants you to access certain Google services, most notably Docs and Reader, offline (as well as other offline-enabled web services like Remember The Milk). This week, a beta for Safari has become available.

With Google Gears, for example, you can view all of your Google Docs offline — and even edit them (word processing docs only, spreadsheets and presentations are viewable but not editable). When you connect back to the internet, you will be able to sync the changes back to Google.

We’re glad that Google has finally seen the light and released a version for our Safari-using counterparts. To make Google Gears work with Safari, you’ll need to download and install the Google Gears package for Mac OS X. Once installed, navigate to a “gears enabled” page, you will be able to use the Google Gears system. Remember, this is a beta and we’ve heard there might be issues if you’ve tweaked Safari in certain ways.

Oh, and there appears to be limited support for Fluid, which is nice.

[via the Apple blog]

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Filed under: Software, Internet Tools

Panic has released Coda 1.5, a free update to my favorite all-in-one web development application.

Coda 1.5 adds several major new features, including find-and-replace across multiple files and a fully-integrated Subversion client.

Also included in the update is a user-customizable bookshelf, which grants you to specify any given website as a “book.” You can also enter a sample search URL with a wildcard character, and command-click on terms to look for them in the book you created. Syntax highlighting has also been improved, as well as performance running under Leopard. Full release notes are available, too.

The update is free for all registered Coda users, and $99 for new users. Discounts are available for registered Transmit owners, too.

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