Why isn’t Chrome a part of Android? It’s a question as old as time itself. Or at least a few years old. But given that the same company, Google, makes both products, it never made much sense. Now they’re finally taking steps to resolve this. A bit. Maybe.

As a group of Googlers have announced on the WebKit-Dev group today (relayed by Google’s Peter Beverloo), the Android team is now committed to working more closely with the WebKit community. Yes, it’s a bit odd that a product so devoted to “open” wasn’t really working with the open source community before — but hey, better late than never.

Writes Andrei Popescu:

We would like to give an update about WebKit on Android. A while ago, we started the effort to upstream the Android port of WebKit. For a variety of reasons, this work took longer than anticipated and was never finished. We realize that the incomplete Android port that exists today in WebKit ToT has caused quite a bit of confusion and inconvenience to the project as a whole and we are very sorry for that.

The full story is a bit more complicated than it appears on the surface. While Android has its own separate browser which isn’t branded as “Chrome”, the two do share some code. But they’re not the same, and two separate teams work on each. For whatever reason, Google chose not to brand the Android browser as Chrome, and doing so now may cause some confusion since there’s Chrome OS — another operating system built by Google that’s unrelated to Android.

So here’s what happening now: Google’s Android team is going to start making available another, slightly modified build of the Android browser, which will be fully open source. Think of it as Chromium to Google’s Chrome. Android-specific code will be removed and presumably, anyone will be able to use this code to build a new mobile WebKit-based browser.

Here’s all of that in tech-speak:

We plan to start by setting up a webkit.org build bot that will compile Chromium’s DRT for Android using the Android NDK, SDK and toolchain. We anticipate a reasonably small set of changes to the Chromium port to achieve this. We’re fully committed to maintaining this new flavor of the Chromium port of WebKit and having a build bot up and running as soon as possible will make this an easier task. At the same time, we will be removing the existing incomplete Android port. This includes the Android-specific code in WebCore/platform/android, as well as any code guarded by the PLATFORM(ANDROID) macro.

What makes the especially hard to follow is that it sure sounds like the Google plans to call this open source version of the Android browser Chromium as well. It will just be a new flavor. Perhaps that’s not so bad since there are already Windows, OS X, and Linux flavors (and the Android one will be really close to the Linux one given the underlying OS technology they share) — but the finished product for all of those operating systems is called Chrome, on Android it still won’t be (presumably, anyway).

Follow all of that?

Yes, it’s still confusing, but regardless, this is a welcomed step in the right direction.

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Check Out This Socia Media Article Titled - Android (Finally) Taking Steps Towards WebKit And Chromium

Why isn’t Chrome a part of Android? It’s a question as old as time itself. Or at least a few years old. But given that the same company, Google, makes both products, it never made much sense. Now they’re finally taking steps to resolve this. A bit. Maybe.

As a group of Googlers have announced on the WebKit-Dev group today (relayed by Google’s Peter Beverloo), the Android team is now committed to working more closely with the WebKit community. Yes, it’s a bit odd that a product so devoted to “open” wasn’t really working with the open source community before — but hey, better late than never.

Writes Andrei Popescu:

We would like to give an update about WebKit on Android. A while ago, we started the effort to upstream the Android port of WebKit. For a variety of reasons, this work took longer than anticipated and was never finished. We realize that the incomplete Android port that exists today in WebKit ToT has caused quite a bit of confusion and inconvenience to the project as a whole and we are very sorry for that.

The full story is a bit more complicated than it appears on the surface. While Android has its own separate browser which isn’t branded as “Chrome”, the two do share some code. But they’re not the same, and two separate teams work on each. For whatever reason, Google chose not to brand the Android browser as Chrome, and doing so now may cause some confusion since there’s Chrome OS — another operating system built by Google that’s unrelated to Android.

So here’s what happening now: Google’s Android team is going to start making available another, slightly modified build of the Android browser, which will be fully open source. Think of it as Chromium to Google’s Chrome. Android-specific code will be removed and presumably, anyone will be able to use this code to build a new mobile WebKit-based browser.

Here’s all of that in tech-speak:

We plan to start by setting up a webkit.org build bot that will compile Chromium’s DRT for Android using the Android NDK, SDK and toolchain. We anticipate a reasonably small set of changes to the Chromium port to achieve this. We’re fully committed to maintaining this new flavor of the Chromium port of WebKit and having a build bot up and running as soon as possible will make this an easier task. At the same time, we will be removing the existing incomplete Android port. This includes the Android-specific code in WebCore/platform/android, as well as any code guarded by the PLATFORM(ANDROID) macro.

What makes the especially hard to follow is that it sure sounds like the Google plans to call this open source version of the Android browser Chromium as well. It will just be a new flavor. Perhaps that’s not so bad since there are already Windows, OS X, and Linux flavors (and the Android one will be really close to the Linux one given the underlying OS technology they share) — but the finished product for all of those operating systems is called Chrome, on Android it still won’t be (presumably, anyway).

Follow all of that?

Yes, it’s still confusing, but regardless, this is a welcomed step in the right direction.

---

Check Out This Socia Media Article Titled - Android (Finally) Taking Steps Towards WebKit And Chromium

The upcoming iPhone 5 will almost certainly be a single phone that supports multiple networks, namely CDMA (such as the one used by Verizon or Sprint in the United States) as well as GSM (which is used by AT&T and T-Mobile in the U.S.).

This has been rumored before, and even at one point half confirmed by a Verizon executive, but nothing like some good old evidence from the field to turn a rumor into a near-certainty.

I was recently approached by a developer of some of the most popular apps on the iOS platform today, who asked not to be named and offered solid proof that supports the above claim.

According to this person, and app usage logs I was sent, a tiny number of people have recently registered for one of their applications from a single, brand new Apple device that is decidedly dual-mode – meaning it supports both CDMA and GSM.

The logs show that the app has been briefly tested by a handful of people using what is almost certainly an iPhone 5, evidently running iOS 5, sporting two distinct sets of mobile network codes (MNC) / mobile country codes (MCC). Those codes can be used to uniquely identify mobile carriers.

Sure enough, some registrations for the app – which the developer also asked not to be named – were logged from a new Apple device, using the MNC/MCC codes from both Verizon and AT&T.

The first iPhone was a GSM phone released on June 29, 2007 exclusively on the AT&T network in the United States. On February 10, 2011, a CDMA version of the iPhone 4 for Verizon made its debut.

Now that Apple is catering to both carriers (and their respective networks), it makes all the sense in the world for the company to combine support for both CDMA and GSM in a single device, turning it into a ‘world phone’ or a ‘global phone’ as the cool kids would say.

In addition, rumors have been circulating since last year that Qualcomm would replace Intel as the baseband supplier to the iPhone 5 smartphone. Notably, Qualcomm already supplies the baseband to the CDMA version of the iPhone 4, but not the original GSM version of the device.

An Apple-made ‘world phone’ would be great news for consumers, especially those in countries where certain carriers use CDMA (the U.S., India, Japan, Argentina, Brazil and more). Travelling abroad with a phone that only supports CDMA, in particular, is a major pain in the ass.

With a dual-mode iPhone 5, users will be able to roam between both networks effortlessly.

If all of the above checks out – and all signs point to yes, overwhelmingly so – that would mean the soon-to-be-unveiled iPhone 5 probably won’t be an LTE device, perhaps disappointingly so for some who still hadn’t ruled out the possibility of a 4G iPhone in spite of mounting evidence that such a handset wouldn’t be coming out this year.

The 5th-generation iPhone is expected to be globally released in Q3 2011, inline with the release of iOS 5, the next generation of Apple’s operating system.

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Check Out This Socia Media Article Titled - Source: The iPhone 5 Will Indeed Be A Dual-Mode CDMA / GSM ‘World Phone’

Last fall, Google made its first attempt to take over your living room with the launch of Google TV — a platform that merged the web with television content to create an experience promising to usher in a new era of convenience and interactivity.

Unfortunately it’s been mostly a dud thus far. The platform’s overly-complex user interface and content issues (some major channels specifically block access to their websites from Google TV devices) has led to weak adoption. Google is reportedly working to give the platform a major revamp, and there’s at least one more bright light in its future: soon, Google TV will support Android applications.

Now, Google’s been promising that the platform would be receiving Android support ever since it was first announced, but up until now there hasn’t been a strong indication as to when that’d actually happen (the most specific Google’s gotten has been “summer”). Today, we’re one big step closer to seeing that promise come fruition: Google has just released a preview version of a Google TV plug-in for the Android SDK.

This doesn’t mean that you can install Android apps yet. Rather, it means developers can start to tweak their existing Android apps for the so-called ’10 foot experience’, so that their apps will be ready once the Google TV update does ship to users.

From the Android blog:

These are still early days for Google TV, and this release is another step in providing developer tools for the big screen. While the number of apps available on TV will initially be small, we expect that through this early release of the add-on you’ll be able to bring optimized TV apps into the ecosystem more quickly. To start doing this, download the Google TV add-on today. Also, please continue to reach out to us on the Google TV Android Developer Community forum. We look forward to your contributions!

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Check Out This Socia Media Article Titled - Android Devs Can Now Start Optimizing Their Apps For Google TV

Last November, location startup SimpleGeo brought in former Digg CEO Jay Adelson to replace co-founder Matt Galligan as CEO. At the time, Galligan slid into the role of Chief Strategy Officer and became more of a public face for the company. Now he’s leaving the company entirely.

You can read the news on SimpleGeo’s blog here, as well as Galligan’s own thoughts here. But essentially this is something that has been in the works ever since Adelson took over those many months ago, Galligan tells us. With the company now transitioning into their next phase, Galligan felt the time was right to fully step aside. He’ll continue to serve as an advisor, but Adelson and SimpleGeo co-founder Joe Stump will continue to steer the ship.

While Galligan figures out what he wants to do next, he’s going to take an extended period of time off. He dove right into SimpleGeo (then known as Crash Corp.) after leaving AOL in May 2009. He sold his first startup, Socialthing, to AOL in August 2008.

But Galligan isn’t fully taking a step back from the startup scene during his time off. He’ll be helping out TechStars, giving the incubator a much-needed voice and presence on the west coast. Galligan has long had ties to the TechStars community, as Socialthing was in the inaugural class in 2007.

Additionally, he’ll soon be launching a non-profit foundation with Shervin Pishevar, a longtime entrepreneur and now a managing director at Menlo Ventures. Called “1% of Nothing“, the foundation will ask founders to commit a one percent stake in their company to be given to charity in the case of a liquidity event. Galligan did this himself, giving one percent of the sale of Socialthing to Community Foundation in Boulder, Colorado.

SimpleGeo has raised around $10 million in funding so far. As they enter this next phase, whispers have them out there raising more.

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Check Out This Socia Media Article Titled - SimpleGeo Cofounder Matt Galligan Steps Down; Will Focus On Helping TechStars And A Non-Profit

Over the last few months, Twitter has been rolling out some key new enhancements to their user experience, adding improved search functionality and the ability to upload images right from a user’s Twitter stream. The photo upgrade came thanks to Photobucket hosting and appeared as a pic.twitter link and image for a user’s followers, as we reported in June and again two weeks ago, when the feature was officially available to a full 100 percent of Twitter users.

Today, Twitter keeps the photo updates rolling, by adding image galleries to the everyday Twitter user experience. Huzzah! According to Twitter’s new support page, these user image galleries will collect the 100 most recent images a user has uploaded into his or her Tweet stream over the course of their recent Twittering careers, organizing them all on a single page, and displaying them in chronological order.

“The images included in user galleries can come from Twitter, yFrog, TwitPic, Instagram and other image sharing services supported in Twitter’s details pane”, Twitter said via its Help Center. Twitterers are likely going to appreciate this feature, as it means that users no longer have to click over to a third party photo sharing app to browse through a friend’s Twit pics. This new feature also serves Twitter well in its pursuit of a stickier user experience. Keeping users on the site for all of their photo sharing needs will no doubt be great for Twitter’s stats, and a welcome addition for users.

As to the technical limitations of the image galleries, display (as mentioned before) will include a user’s 100 most recent images, and, unfortunately, video thumbnails will not be included, nor will Tweets with video links. What’s more, Tweets with images that were sent before January 1, 2010 will not be included in image galleries.

For those looking for the new user galleries, they can be found on your profile page. According to Twitter’s Help Center, clicking “view all” will open the user gallery in the current window. Two different viewing options are included, being grid view and detail view, with the former being self explanatory and the latter showing the user the most recent image, “complete with the body of the Tweet displayed below it and thumbnails for other images above it”, Twitter said.

Personally, it’s hard for me to believe that Twitter is just rolling out this feature in August 2011, but that being said, I’m glad it’s here. It’ll be nice to have the same photo viewing option above “similar to you” that we have on Facebook above our wall feeds.

For those not seeing the new photo option in your user profile yet, have patience, the image galleries should be popping up within the next 24 hours, if they haven’t already. I’m not seeing galleries yet on the web client or on Twitter’s desktop app for Mac, but I’m sure they’ll be surfacing soon. After all, we’ve waited a few years for this, what’s a few more hours?

Images courtesy of the Twitter’s support page.

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Check Out This Socia Media Article Titled - Five Years Later, Twitter Rolls Out Image Galleries

Police investigate as Tory MP tweets that hacking groups are behind emails, though Anonymous denies involvement

Police are investigating a series of emails threatening to kill the children of the Conservative MP Louise Mensch, which she claimed to be from the hacking groups Anonymous and LulzSec.

The MP for Corby revealed the threats on Twitter from New York, where she is spending her summer holiday. On police advice, Mensch has not revealed the wording of the emails but she confirmed to the Guardian that they included a threat to kill her children, and bore the logo of LulzSec and the name Anonymous. She tweeted: “Had some morons from Anonymous/LulzSec threaten my children via email. As I’m in the States, be good … to have somebody from the UK police advise me where I should forward the email.”

She said she was revealing the information on Twitter because the threat aimed to warn her off using the social media network. Mensch, who wrote popular fiction before entering the Commons last year, is an avid user of Twitter and has embarked on high-profile debates in recent days about social media blackouts during the recent riots and phone hacking.

In a statement, Mensch said: “Having discussed the matter with House of Commons police, and on their advice, I will not be releasing the email as they investigate; I do intend to release it once the police investigation has finally concluded.

“I am extremely grateful for the prompt action of police in parliament and in Northamptonshire in securing my family and in working hard to trace who sent these cowardly threats.”

LulzSec and Anonymous advocate civil disobedience on the internet. LulzSec was behind the hacking of News International websites at the height of the News of the World phone-hacking revelations, and a separate operation against Nintendo; Anonymous has targeted the Church of Scientology, Visa, Mastercard and various Middle Eastern governments in the pursuit of what it sees as transparency and individual liberty.

However, LulzSec has done nothing since July. It fell completely silent last week after its leader, known as Sabu and believed to be a Puerto Rican living in New York, went offline. Anonymous is a loose collective without any leadership but Twitter accounts linked to it denied Mensch’s claim. “We didn’t [do it],” tweeted one. “We don’t care about her or her children.”

Check Out This Socia Media Article Titled - Louise Mensch claims Anonymous and LulzSec threatened her children

Police investigate as Tory MP tweets that hacking groups are behind emails, though Anonymous denies involvement

Police are investigating a series of emails threatening to kill the children of the Conservative MP Louise Mensch, which she claimed to be from the hacking groups Anonymous and LulzSec.

The MP for Corby revealed the threats on Twitter from New York, where she is spending her summer holiday. On police advice, Mensch has not revealed the wording of the emails but she confirmed to the Guardian that they included a threat to kill her children, and bore the logo of LulzSec and the name Anonymous. She tweeted: “Had some morons from Anonymous/LulzSec threaten my children via email. As I’m in the States, be good … to have somebody from the UK police advise me where I should forward the email.”

She said she was revealing the information on Twitter because the threat aimed to warn her off using the social media network. Mensch, who wrote popular fiction before entering the Commons last year, is an avid user of Twitter and has embarked on high-profile debates in recent days about social media blackouts during the recent riots and phone hacking.

In a statement, Mensch said: “Having discussed the matter with House of Commons police, and on their advice, I will not be releasing the email as they investigate; I do intend to release it once the police investigation has finally concluded.

“I am extremely grateful for the prompt action of police in parliament and in Northamptonshire in securing my family and in working hard to trace who sent these cowardly threats.”

LulzSec and Anonymous advocate civil disobedience on the internet. LulzSec was behind the hacking of News International websites at the height of the News of the World phone-hacking revelations, and a separate operation against Nintendo; Anonymous has targeted the Church of Scientology, Visa, Mastercard and various Middle Eastern governments in the pursuit of what it sees as transparency and individual liberty.

However, LulzSec has done nothing since July. It fell completely silent last week after its leader, known as Sabu and believed to be a Puerto Rican living in New York, went offline. Anonymous is a loose collective without any leadership but Twitter accounts linked to it denied Mensch’s claim. “We didn’t [do it],” tweeted one. “We don’t care about her or her children.”

Check Out This Socia Media Article Titled - Louise Mensch claims Anonymous and LulzSec threatened her children

Police investigate as Tory MP tweets that hacking groups are behind emails, though Anonymous denies involvement

Police are investigating a series of emails threatening to kill the children of the Conservative MP Louise Mensch, which she claimed to be from the hacking groups Anonymous and LulzSec.

The MP for Corby revealed the threats on Twitter from New York, where she is spending her summer holiday. On police advice, Mensch has not revealed the wording of the emails but she confirmed to the Guardian that they included a threat to kill her children, and bore the logo of LulzSec and the name Anonymous. She tweeted: “Had some morons from Anonymous/LulzSec threaten my children via email. As I’m in the States, be good … to have somebody from the UK police advise me where I should forward the email.”

She said she was revealing the information on Twitter because the threat aimed to warn her off using the social media network. Mensch, who wrote popular fiction before entering the Commons last year, is an avid user of Twitter and has embarked on high-profile debates in recent days about social media blackouts during the recent riots and phone hacking.

In a statement, Mensch said: “Having discussed the matter with House of Commons police, and on their advice, I will not be releasing the email as they investigate; I do intend to release it once the police investigation has finally concluded.

“I am extremely grateful for the prompt action of police in parliament and in Northamptonshire in securing my family and in working hard to trace who sent these cowardly threats.”

LulzSec and Anonymous advocate civil disobedience on the internet. LulzSec was behind the hacking of News International websites at the height of the News of the World phone-hacking revelations, and a separate operation against Nintendo; Anonymous has targeted the Church of Scientology, Visa, Mastercard and various Middle Eastern governments in the pursuit of what it sees as transparency and individual liberty.

However, LulzSec has done nothing since July. It fell completely silent last week after its leader, known as Sabu and believed to be a Puerto Rican living in New York, went offline. Anonymous is a loose collective without any leadership but Twitter accounts linked to it denied Mensch’s claim. “We didn’t [do it],” tweeted one. “We don’t care about her or her children.”

Check Out This Socia Media Article Titled - Louise Mensch claims Anonymous and LulzSec threatened her children

Police investigate as Tory MP tweets that hacking groups are behind emails, though Anonymous denies involvement

Police are investigating a series of emails threatening to kill the children of the Conservative MP Louise Mensch, which she claimed to be from the hacking groups Anonymous and LulzSec.

The MP for Corby revealed the threats on Twitter from New York, where she is spending her summer holiday. On police advice, Mensch has not revealed the wording of the emails but she confirmed to the Guardian that they included a threat to kill her children, and bore the logo of LulzSec and the name Anonymous. She tweeted: “Had some morons from Anonymous/LulzSec threaten my children via email. As I’m in the States, be good … to have somebody from the UK police advise me where I should forward the email.”

She said she was revealing the information on Twitter because the threat aimed to warn her off using the social media network. Mensch, who wrote popular fiction before entering the Commons last year, is an avid user of Twitter and has embarked on high-profile debates in recent days about social media blackouts during the recent riots and phone hacking.

In a statement, Mensch said: “Having discussed the matter with House of Commons police, and on their advice, I will not be releasing the email as they investigate; I do intend to release it once the police investigation has finally concluded.

“I am extremely grateful for the prompt action of police in parliament and in Northamptonshire in securing my family and in working hard to trace who sent these cowardly threats.”

LulzSec and Anonymous advocate civil disobedience on the internet. LulzSec was behind the hacking of News International websites at the height of the News of the World phone-hacking revelations, and a separate operation against Nintendo; Anonymous has targeted the Church of Scientology, Visa, Mastercard and various Middle Eastern governments in the pursuit of what it sees as transparency and individual liberty.

However, LulzSec has done nothing since July. It fell completely silent last week after its leader, known as Sabu and believed to be a Puerto Rican living in New York, went offline. Anonymous is a loose collective without any leadership but Twitter accounts linked to it denied Mensch’s claim. “We didn’t [do it],” tweeted one. “We don’t care about her or her children.”

Check Out This Socia Media Article Titled - Louise Mensch claims Anonymous and LulzSec threatened her children