We just finished watching Google's live announcement of the launch of the Google App Marketplace. Keep reading for information on what they're offering users and developers. Oh, and know that the Marketplace is live today. Updating.

The event is called "Google Campfire One" and it's all about how easy it will be to create, set up, and install apps using Google's App Marketplace. It appears that the big focus is on how everything—apps and existing Google products—will work together seamlessly and allow for all your tools and data to sit in the cloud. Right now the appeal is for business applications, but the potential seems incredible.

The first portion of the announcement is about what developers will give and get in this whole deal. Google is offering them access to 25 million users and only asking for a one-time fee of $100 and 20% revenue in exchange—that's less than what access to Apple's App Store requires. Of course, Google is providing a solid system with apps being authenticated using OpenID, secured using oAuth, and made available through a universal Google Apps navigation system.

While there are already 50 partners right at launch, we're hearing that after new apps are submitted, they may take a few days to show up in the Marketplace—mind you, there's no word on what kind of approval process there is. But once an app is in the Marketplace, it's easy for users or buyers to add them to their Google accounts: They agree to some terms of service, grant access to data—such as Gmail or GCal, and enable your app. Tada! The app will show up in the new apps drop down.

It looks like apps will be easy to integrate into existing Google products as seen by a demo of a payroll app by Intuit which allows for information to be embedded into Gmail or Google Docs.

Speaking of easy, the development of these apps is so simple that there are apparently 40 developers who are on a bus traveling to an SXSW event and working on apps right now.

Back to the integration though. Remember how there have been some nice previews of YouTube videos in Gmail lately? Prepare to see more of that from these new apps because Google is offering developers the chance to set apps to be triggered by certain emails, events, or specific types of content.

What does all this mean right now? For business users, there are plenty of apps available right now—ones for payroll, data entry, management, and an office suite—and they'll be able to run everything right from the cloud. For us plain Janes and Joes though, the Marketplace is full of potential right now. Think social media, data management, communication—all the things you already get from Google, just better.

Yes, my head's already in the cloud. Hopefully everything else will follow and I'll be able to work and play there.

We know you've barely recovered from our Devour review, but Moto just threw another Blur-ified phone in our laps this afternoon - the CLIQ XT. We've been playing around with the Android 1.5-based, Flash Lite-supported, multitouch-capable handset for the last couple of hours -- but before we grace you with our first impressions, just a fair warning: we don't yet know the price of the new T-Mobile Android handset, though Motorola did promise us that it will hit shelves this month. With that said, hit the break for a quick rundown of our early thoughts.

Continue reading Motorola CLIQ XT hands-on

Motorola CLIQ XT hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Motorola CLIQ XT  | Email this | Comments

Alright, we're going to be straight with you: you're not going to like this. See, Microsoft just showed us a pair of 3D games running on its ASUS Windows Phone prototype and built with its brand new XNA Game Studio 4.0, but wouldn't let us nab a single photo or video of the process. What we can tell you is that they exist, they work, and at least Microsoft tossed us some screenshots to wave in your face. The two titles are The Harvest (pictured), a good looking touch-controlled dungeon crawler with destructible environments, being developed by Luma Arcade; and Battle Punks, a less impressive one-on-one sword fighting Facebook game by Gravity Bear that's being ported over. We didn't get to see any full motion 3D camera moves, since Battle Punks is just composed of two characters duking it out, and The Harvest has a fixed camera and some pre-rendered elements, but there were indeed some real polygons being crunched before our eyes at a full resolution (no upscaling), alpha-rev, choppy framerate, and we were assured that full screen 3D was possible. We also got to see one of our first glimpses of universal notifications on Windows Phone: Achievement unlock notices (also pictured above) that slide down from the top of the screen in a black bar and then slide back, and can't be interacted with. Follow after the break for some more nerdy details, along with a video of VisualStudio in action, and screenshots of the two games are in the gallery below.

Continue reading Microsoft shows off XNA games running on Windows Phone, full 3D is a go

Microsoft shows off XNA games running on Windows Phone, full 3D is a go originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Some days, it happens two or three times. I bet that you and most of your friends and family find themselves in the same situation too. [Loldwell]

We heard a rumor last week that Sony was working on new handhelds to compete with devices like the iPad. It sounds like a great idea: a PSP with integrated telephony and e-book functionality could perhaps give everyone in the market a run for their money. But I'm a little skeptical -- Sony's Clié line once defined state-of-the-art PDA, but the company ceded the market to Palm long before the PDA was eventually reborn as the smartphone. If Sony's seriously thinking about getting back to the handheld space, here's some lessons it might learn from its efforts back in the PDA day.

1. Innovation is great but only when you really innovate. Sony led the market in innovation when it entered the PDA space. It offered the first Palm OS devices with removable storage, the first devices that could play back audio and video, and the first high-resolution color devices. All of these clearly drove the market forward. Then the innovations became less innovative and more "gadgetry." There were 3D interfaces for the launcher that were confusing and awkward. Some devices had Bluetooth support but not others. Devices like the NZ-90 (pictured above) added so many features into the mix that it was big, bloated, and nearly useless.* In short, the innovations became less compelling and eventually stood in the way of. I'm worried that Sony's meshing the type of functionality rumored to be its new device without any thought how it all has to work together.

Continue reading Entelligence: Aiming high or another Mylo?

Entelligence: Aiming high or another Mylo? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Remember the jackass that tried exploding his little terrorist genitals onboard Northwest Flight 253 over Christmas? Well the BBC set out to investigate exactly what kind of damage a crotchful of PETN could actually do to a flying jetliner.

The BBC did a test on an old decomissioned 747, putting a dummy with the same type and amount of explosives found on the underwear bomber. As you can see in the above video, the flexibility of the outside of the frame allowed it to absorb the blast. If the bomb had gone off, the plane would have still been able to fly and land. Of course, the damage inside the plane still would have been horrific. But it's nice to know that the trusty 747 can stand up to such abuse.

Oh man, had I been on that plane I would have put the hurt on that guy. I'm talking "make you wish pterodactyls had never invented flight in the first place" kind of hurt. I'm talking Prehistoric Hurt Locker. Oscar-winning tie-in FTW! Goldguy me, bitches. Boeing 747 Survives a Simulated Underwear Bomb Blast [gizmodo] (with more info on why the test was legit despite the cabin not being pressurized) Thanks to Suzanne and Archibold, for having two normal names for once. Except Archibold.

Dear Lifehacker,
I've read about how HTML5 will change the way I use the web, but it seems like the biggest example of HTML5 in action is on sites like YouTube—which don't support my favorite browser, Firefox. What's the deal?

I find myself, and I'm sure tons of others, caught in the Adobe Flash Player vs. HTML5 battle. Flash Player runs terribly on my iMac. Videos on different sites either tell me to install Flash components, show up as blank white areas, load perpetually (CNET TV) or tell me to adjust global storage, and so on. If they do play, I often get the stuttering/buffering that drives me crazy. I had the latest version of Flash Player, uninstalled that and installed the latest 10.1 Beta3, and it's just as bad.

I considered signing up for YouTube's HTML5 beta test, but that only works for Safari, Chrome, and IE, not Firefox. I've read about Mozilla's stance on this issue, too.

I apologize for the long intro to my question, but do you know of any Firefox addon or plugin that installs the H.264 codec? We already have to install a plugin for Flash Player, so perhaps it's possible someone can do this for H.264.

Thanks for any help,
Fighting with Flash

Howdy Fighting,
That's a good question, and unfortunately one to which there's no great answer. It actually is technically possible to play HTML5 YouTube videos in Firefox, but it's extremely convoluted (details below)—and Mac users like yourself won't have any luck. First, for those who aren't familiar with why Firefox is excluded from YouTube's (and some other video sites') HTML5 support, here's why:

The Problem

In order to move to HTML5 from Flash, video sites like YouTube need to host their videos in formats friendly to Flash-free HTML5 embedding. Unfortunately there's no default standard for the format HTML5 videos should use.

As a dedicated open-source, open-standards browser, Firefox chose to support the Ogg Theora video format for HTML5 video. Like Firefox, Ogg Theora is free and open; it's not covered by any patents, so it requires no licensing and is completely free to use for everyone involved.

Other browser makers, like Chrome and Safari, support H.264 for HTML5 video. Unlike Ogg Theora, H.264 is patented, and would theoretically require browser makers to pay licensing fees to use it (though the company that owns licensing rights to H.264 have said that they'll offer it royalty free until 2016). Additionally, the issue isn't just about licensing.

Some tests have shown H.264 to perform better than Ogg Theora in side-by-side comparisons. Apple's stance on the matter, via Wikipedia, is that "H.264 performs better and is already more widely supported." For video sites like YouTube, the main concern is likely which format can deliver the highest quality video with the greatest compression rates. Unfortunately for Team Firefox (and supporters of free and open web standards), it's looking like H.264 might deliver the best results.

It's worth nothing that browsers can support multiple video formats for HTML5 support, but currently Chrome is the only browser that supports both H.264 and Ogg Theora (though through the Frankenstein efforts of Google Chrome Frame, Internet Explorer also gets support for both). The chart below (from Wikipedia) lays it all out:

As you can see, unless either Firefox changes its stance or sites like YouTube decide to support a free alternative like Ogg Theora, Firefox fanatics don't have a clear way to watch HTML5 YouTube videos.

The "Solution"

If you're extremely desperate to watch HTML5 YouTube videos but you absolutely do not want to switch to another browser, you've got one simple-yet-absurd solution that'll only work on Windows:

Watch HTML5 YouTube Videos in Firefox (on Windows)

1. Install the IE Tab Firefox extension (or one of the other IE-in-Firefox extensions).
2. Install Google Chrome Frame for IE.
   
   
3. In the IE Tab preferences inside Firefox and set YouTube to always open inside an IE Tab (see image below).
   
4. Visit the YouTube HTML5 Video Player opt-in page (if you've set up IE Tab correctly above, it should open in an IE Tab inside Firefox) and click the Join the HTML5 Beta link at the bottom of the page.
   
5. Go watch an HTML5-supported YouTube video.

And... that's it. Ridiculous, but I've tried it, and it seems to work. (Though, unsurprisingly, it seemed buggy, and worked much better in straight Chrome than it did in either IE with Chrome Frame or Firefox with IE and Chrome Frame.) Unfortunately it doesn't help Mac users like Fighting with Flash much, but it's the best we could do.

More than anything, the convoluted process involved in watching an HTML5 YouTube video in Firefox only serves to underscore the problem. It's not something that'll likely be solved overnight (though I guess if Mozilla decides to cave into H.264, change could come pretty quickly), but it's a good reminder that important, web-changing technology almost always comes with a few speed bumps.

Love,
Lifehacker

Got a better method you're using, or want to weigh in on this whole H.264 vs. Ogg Theora battle? Let's hear it in the comments.

For every time you've brought a scooter to the airport and wished it fit into the overhead compartment, I give you the Nexus: a battery-powered scooter that folds into a luggage-sized case. The TSA will love this.

Nexus is a concept designed by Francisco Lupin, and if it were either for a) sale or b) not guaranteed to get me arrested, I'd own one already. Its two electric engines run on four 12V batteries, and can achieve speeds of up to 15 km/h. It'll last two hours on one charge, though if you make it two minutes before being tackled by bored security personnel you deserve some kind of special award. [Tuvie via Dvice]

Think you've got what it takes to join Team Lifehacker? That's good, because we're on the hunt for a new writer to join the crew.

You could be a great fit if:

• You love and understand a lot about technology, and have a knack for tinkering with software and bending gear to your will. (Bonus points for command line/programming junkies in general.)
• You know how to slap together nouns, verbs, and the occasional em dash and enjoy a good href.
• You can deliver clean, crisp, and informed takes on everything from software and web sites to food and personal finance.
• You're creative, and you've got all kinds of ideas that would make for great Lifehacker features. (We particularly love a good how-to feature.)
• You're ambitious, looking to make a name for yourself, and are prepared to work hard.

I'm emphasizing the hard work aspect because Lifehacker is a job that does require some serious hours and dedication, and if you don't have the time or aren't interested in a job that requires a lot of hard work, it's probably not for you. But if you're a good fit, it's also an extremely rewarding job.

If you think you may be a good fit, send an email to tips at lifehacker.com with "Lifehacker Job Application" in the subject. Don't include any attachments. Do include your Lifehacker commenter ID if you have one, along with anything else you've written, Lifehacker-y ideas you have that you think would make you a good fit, or anything else you think might wow us.

The position we're looking to fill is part-to-full time and pays accordingly. We're expecting a lot of submissions, so we won't be able to respond to each email individually; rest assured that your interest is much appreciated.

With the estate of Philip K. Dick up in arms over the slightest commercial reference to his published works, we may come to regret the above headline. But it's worth the risk to bring more attention to this lovely, handcrafted Android pillow. Covered in fleece and filled with fluffy polyester for a texture that creator Craftsquatch describes as "firm yet springy," the cuddly 12-inch square, made-to-order cushion can be yours for $20 before shipping. If only it came with dessert.

Does Android dream of DIY cushions? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Technabob  |  Craftsquatch (Etsy)  | Email this | Comments