Apple today posted an interesting new HTML 5 and Web Standards section to its web site, a counterpoint of sorts to Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 Test Drive site (and yet another assault on Adobe Flash). There's just one problem: Unlike the Microsoft effort, Apple's site only works properly in its own Safari web browser, which undercuts the point the company is try to make. Safari, after all, is used by less than 5 percent of web browser users worldwide.

It wasn't long ago that a little software company from Redmond, Washington defined "standards" as "whatever the fuck we decide on doing." That didn't work out for them so well in the long run.

At least WebKit is open source. Is IE? No, it's not... so shut the fuck up.

Hell, Internet Explorer still sucks so hard that Google has literally taken it upon themselves to innovate for Microsoft with Google Chrome Frame. That's how inept Microsoft is at making a decent web browser. Their competitors are now rebuilding their products. 

Apple has become incredibly arrogant with respect to the standards on the web, but at least there is some merit to their claims in the pissing match that is web standards. 

/end rant

Apple has pushed past arch-rival Microsoft to become the world's biggest technology company.

Changes in the share price values of the two in Wednesday's choppy trading left the total value of Apple at $222bn (£154bn).

Microsoft is now valued by investors at $219bn.

I foresee a conversation like this happening in the near future:

Steve Jobs: I've been waiting for you, Bill. We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner; now I am the master.
Bill Gates: Only a master of evil, Steve.

Steam is now available for the Mac. Read what the press has to say, and what other gamers are saying. Or just download Steam now.

Steam has been a service exclusively for PC users since we launched it in 2004. For the first time we and our partners are bringing it to another platform. It's been a ton of work, but the Mac is great for the same reason the PC is great - they are both open systems that let gamers and game developers be as close as possible.

So check it out. If you have a Mac and are new to Steam, welcome! If you've been with us since the beginning, borrow a Mac and log into your Steam account and jump into a game. And for everybody, Portal is free from today until the 24th.

 

Wow. Just... wow. What an awesome to launch a new service. Steam on OS X with a free copy of Portal? Freaking awesome. The rest of the industry could learn from Valve. Then again, the PC gaming industry is increasingly becoming Valve. No complaints from me. 

I just downloaded it and gave it a go. Works surprisingly well on this new MacBook Pro (13"/2.6GHz C2D/4GB/320M). Decent FPS at pretty good quality settings, all running natively under OS X.

The cake is not a lie after all.

Valve has announced it will release its anticipated Mac version of the digital distribution platform Steam on May 12, after earlier this week releasing a significantly modified version of the main PC client.

I can't wait. I wonder what kind of games will launch with the new client?

This is dangerous for my productivity. I really don't need to get sucked into Team Fortress 2. Wait... yes I do.

My reading of this new language is that cross-compilers, such as the Flash-to-iPhone compiler in Adobe’s upcoming Flash Professional CS5 release, are prohibited. This also bans apps compiled using MonoTouch — a tool that compiles C# and .NET apps to the iPhone. It’s unclear what this means for tools like Titanium and PhoneGap, which let developers write JavaScript code that runs in WebKit inside a native iPhone app wrapper. They might be OK. This tweet from the PhoneGap Twitter account suggests they’re not worried. The folks at Appcelerator realize, though, that they might be out of bounds with Titanium. Ansca’s Corona SDK, which lets you write iPhone apps using Lua, strikes me as out of bounds.

I'm kind of glad that Apple is laying down the law with respect to how applications are created. The reality is that the iPhone, and most mobile devices, are still pretty underpowered in terms of processing power. The iPhone makes use of a lot of little tricks to seem much faster than it is. The whole purpose of forcing developers to write in a compiled language and limit functionality is speed. One day we won't have to worry about processing power and memory, but right now we do. Apple's decision to use C instead of Java is why the iPhone seems so much faster than a BlackBerry or Android phone. Flash and Adobe AIR have abysmal performance on Android. One runtime running on top of another. It's horrible, just horrible.

It will be awesome when the iPhone has the hardware capabilities to run things like Java and Python at lightning fast speeds, but that day is not today. I really don't understand all the crying about Apple trying to set a minimum standard for applications.

During a special media event held today in Cupertino, Apple unveiled details about the next major update to the iPhone OS that powers its iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad mobile devices. Slated to arrive sometime this summer for the iPhone and iPod touch, the update will give developers access to over 1,500 new APIs to improve and extend the capabilities of their apps, as well as give users over 100 new features like multitasking and improved enterprise support.

Awesome. Just awesome. The only bad part is that it won't be released for a few months. I find the iPhone OS 4.0 announcement far more interesting than the iPad announcement. The iPad really isn't that impressive without this software update.

Some day we'll have fast enough connections to do this properly. It's a shame that you can't run OS X under virtualization. You can run OS X Server apparently (only on Apple hardware as of current, IIRC).

It's almost affordable create a VNC solution using Amazon S3, EC2, Xen to create a completely virtual desktop that lives entirely in the cloud. Amazon EC2 gives you 20-cores (at about 1.0GHz each), 7GB of RAM and 1690GB of local storage for $0.68/hr. That's less than $5.44 for 8 hours. Not bad. I wonder if anyone has ever tried using a virtual solution like this as a practical desktop solution. I think I need to play around with this.

This is awesome. Ever since I decided to move away from the iPhone I've been waiting for an announcement like this. I bought the first iPhone on launch day and the reality is that, while revolution in terms of UI, the iPhone OS is terrible in terms of productivity. It's a toy. It was never designed to run native applications.

Here's hoping that Version 4.0 is an all encompassing operating system with multitasking, a proper file system, and the ability to create applications outside of the draconian rules set forth by the iTunes Store. It's going to be a major letdown if it's just a refresh of their current operating system.

Wow. Looks like OS X might see both Steam and Source in the not to distant future. That would be pretty epic.

Even I was dubious about the rumor the other day of Steam coming to the Mac, but now here's something straight from Valve hinting that it might actually happen. MacRumors got an image of Half-Life's Gordon Freeman via email... with an Apple logo on his chest. MacNN got another picture, this one showing turrets from Portal and Team Fortress 2 parodying the "I'm a Mac" ads. And Shacknews got a third, with the Heavy from TF2 eating a sandwich shaped like an Apple logo in a parody of the iPod dancing ads.

I wonder if they actually rewrote the Source engine to work with OpenGL, or they are just going to run it under a WINE like CCP did with EVE Online. Either way it's going to be pretty freaking awesome playing Portal natively under OS X.

And I've got to give Valve big props for their brilliant guerrilla marketing tactics in getting these images out. They made headlines across the entire Apple community with a half dozen images. That's strategy and efficiency at it's best.

Linux next?

Well, today we're pleased to announce a new way for consumers to purchase a mobile phone through a Google hosted web store. The goal of this new consumer channel is to provide an efficient way to connect Google's online users with selected Android devices. We also want to make the overall user experience simple: a simple purchasing process, simple service plans from operators, simple and worry-free delivery and start-up.

The first phone we'll be selling through this new web store is the Nexus One — a convergence point for mobile technology, apps and the Internet. Nexus One is an exemplar of what's possible on mobile devices through Android — when cool apps meet a fast, bright and connected computer that fits in your pocket. The Nexus One belongs in the emerging class of devices which we call "superphones." It's the first in what we expect to be a series of products which we will bring to market with our operator and hardware partners and sell through our online store.

Today Google launched the Nexus One, in collaboration with HTC. Built by HTC, designed and branded by Google, and launched on T-Mobile's network, they now have their own "superphone".

I don't see the big deal. TechCrunch's Michael Arrington seems to like it so much that you get the impression that he'd marry it if he could, while Engadget is considerably less impressed. Honestly, I don't see the big deal. It's yet another Android phone. That's not a bad thing per se, and it's the best Android phone to date, but it's also nothing to get excited about.

My biggest problem with the new device is that it has even worse stated battery life than the iPhone – in some cases, 33% less. How is this even remotely acceptable anymore? The reason I moved away from the iPhone was because the battery life was abysmal. You can't rely on a phone when it's dead. The Nexus One has a beautiful 800x480 OLED display... but what good is it if you have to set the brightness to 10%?

What is pretty cool is that this shows actual progress towards a more open mobile communication structure in the US. The Nexus One probably wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for T-Mobile, who has will fully support, and even subsidize the fully unlocked device. T-Mobile recently changed their business mode in a wayl which provides support for unlocked devices by providing low cost, no contract plans for voice, text and data.

As someone who now uses T-Mobile, I'm glad to see that there are more big releases coming to the only carrier willing to sell unlocked, unhindered devices, but I'm not about to rush out and buy a phone that will be dead before lunch time.