Technobabble

Safari on the iPhone OS 4.0 does much better than most browsers on the HTML5Test with a net score of 134/160. Here’s the breakup of the test results with the failures: Doctype – 4/4 Canvas – 12/12 Video – 25/30 Ogg Theora codec support - No Audio – 22/24 Ogg Vorbis codec support - No Geolocation 5/5 Storage – 8/8 Offline Web Application – 11/11 Workers – 0/6 Web Workers - No Section elements – 7/7 Grouping content elements – 2/2 Text-level semantic elements – 4/5 time element - No Forms – 22/27 autocomplete input attribute – No keygen element – No output element – No progress element – No meter element - No User Interaction – 12/19 hidden attribute – No Undo manager - No

Safari on iPhone OS 4.0 (build 8A230m) supports WebSocket. Here’s the output from the WebSocket test : Yes, the browser still reports OS 3_1_2 even though the OS is really 4.0. The AppleWebKit version is newer than the iPad. I was able to run a WebSocket test against Kaazing’s WebSocket Gateway .

James Gosling, the creator of Java has quit Oracle as of April 2nd this year. While his blog entry didn’t give any specific reasons, it is not a surprise by any means. Sun and Oracle have very different corporate cultures – one focused on employees and the other focused on the business. It was always going to be hard for Oracle to retain someone as free spirited as Gosling. I’m pretty sure he’ll be joining the rest of the Java gurus at Google. If that doesn’t go well, IBM perhaps. I hope he doesn’t even think about joining Neal Gafter.

My recent searches (see the December 2009 blog entry about the ASUS SV1TS ) for a Skype phone replacement for the Netgear SPH200D brought me to IPEVO’s S0-20 wifi Skype phone . This is an all-in-one wifi phone from Taiwanese company IPEVO . It has a form factor of a regular cell phone and is extremely light-weight – just 80g including the 3.7V Li-ion rechargeable battery (rated at 900mAh)! The phone connects to 802.11 b/g networks. After charging the battery initially for a few hours, the phone was a breeze to setup – walk through a few setup screens to choose and connect to the wifi network, and then sign-in to Skype. I was able to place my Skype test call in under one minute. The phone automatically downloads contacts as well account information. The phone charges in a cradle which comes with a 100-240V 50-60Hz charger, making it suitable for international use. The phone can also be charged via mini-USB (USB cable not included in the package). IPEVO also provides periodic firm...

Ever wondered what intricate patterns might show up with a 3D rendering of the Mandelbrot set? Check out the Real 3D Mandelbrot Fractal . Here's a sample image with lots more, in high definition at the site:

The ASUS Skype Video Phone Touch SV1TS (Silver/Blue) is one of the newer Skype phones that brings PC-less video calls to Skype. It’s an all-in-one unit with a 7-inch 800x480 touch-screen display, built-in microphone, speaker, webcam, wifi and ethernet, and jacks for optional external headset. The phone also comes with a rechargeable battery pack. The touch screen and menus made it a breeze to setup and start making calls in a couple of minutes. Audio quality is great but the video resolution leaves a lot to be desired. The complete package is also rather bulky, weighing in at 1.6 kg (about 3.5 lb) and at 25.3 cm (9.9 in) tall. The photographs of the phone don’t highlight this aspect but when seen in-person, the phone is definitely heavy and huge! One of the big disadvantages of this phone is the lack of portability compared to the cordless/wifi Skype handsets. Since the focus is on video calls, it can only be used a desk, making it unsuitable for causal home use as a replacement for...

Boxee , in their own words, “… is a social media center. With Boxee you can play videos, music and pictures from your computer, local network, and the Internet. You can also share with your friends what albums you're listening to, what movies and TV shows you're watching, send recommendations and more. ” Hooking up a  computer running Boxee to a television is a great way to get access to tons of video and audio content from Hulu , Netflix , YouTube , BBC , Pandora and so on. Boxee’s got a lot of positive press lately. With the recent addition of the Boxee Remote application, the iPhone can now be used as a remote for Boxee via wi-fi. Here’s a video of the Boxee remote application in action: