     |
| |
Google let us all know that it would strip out unneeded WebKit code to make its Blink web engine scream, but it never said exactly what kind of pace we could expect. The answer, it turns out, is "breakneck." The company's Alex Komoroske told Google I/O attendees that the Open Web Platform team has already yanked 8.8 million lines of programming from Blink in about a month, with 4.5 million of them scrubbed almost immediately. Removing so much cruft has reportedly improved not just the upcoming engine, but the engineers -- they're far more productive, Komoroske says. The team has already had time to explore new rendering techniques and garner code contribution requests from the likes of Adobe, Intel and even Microsoft. Although we don't yet know if all the trimming will be noticeable to end users by the time Blink reaches polished Chrome and Chrome OS releases, it's safe to say that some developers won't recognize what they see.
Filed under: Internet, Software, Google
Source: TechCrunch
Now that Chromium has pledged its allegiance to Google's new Blink rendering engine, Webkit is set to have the now-unnecessary Chrome-specific code stripped from it. Apple Webkit developer Geoffrey Garen kicked off a conversation on the project's mailing list about removing the Mountain View-centric cruft, saying that it would streamline things and hopefully "make development easier and more coherent for everyone." Garen adds that Googlers Adam Barth and Eric Seidel have already offered to pitch in with the clean up, but he asks that devs who will continue using the engine tidy things up as well. Over the next few weeks, code in Webkit related to the search giant's browser, such as the V8 JavaScript engine, will be put up on the chopping block. With a Blink-infused Chrome slated to arrive in roughly 10 weeks, these changes shouldn't mean much for the average web surfer, save for Webkit being a bit trimmer under the hood.
Filed under: Misc, Internet, Software, Apple, Google
Via: Slashdot
Source: Webkit Developer Mailing List
Word that Google had decided to fork WebKit and build its own rendering engine is still echoing through the spidery halls of the internet. The true ramifications aren't entirely clear yet, but Opera has pledged to embrace Blink and WebKit is already talking about removing Chrome-specific code from its repositories. This doesn't necessarily indicate a seismic shift in the industry, but it certainly suggests that we won't be looking at a world so thoroughly dominated by the direct descendant of KHTML. At least at first, the new entrant won't actually deviate much from WebKit. Primarily the focus will be on stripping away unnecessary code and files to streamline the rendering engine specifically for Chrome. Obviously, this won't prevent other developers from using Blink, since the project is open source. But Google has been pretty up front about the rationale behind the fork -- the multi-process architecture favored by Chromium-based projects is quite different than that used in other WebKit browsers. This has, to put it in the plainest terms possible, kinda gummed up the works.
Blink is about 10 weeks away from landing in the stable version of Chrome (it's expected to be turned on by default in version 28), but it's already available as part of the Canary build. We downloaded the experimental browser and spent some time with it in an effort to identify what, if anything, was different. Keep reading after the break to find out just what Google has bought by shedding some of WebKit's baggage.
Those who use Google Chrome as their browser of choice owe much to the WebKit browser engine.
Google has now announced its new Chrome browser engine, Blink, marking a departure from familiar territory across WebKit open source platform. Apple’s Safari is based on WebKit2, which is probably why Google chose to ...
Continue Reading on Walyou
You could call WebKit the glue that binds the modern web: the rendering engine powers Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome, and many mobile browsers past and present. Things are about to unstick a little. Google believes that Chromium's multi-process approach has added too much complexity for both the browser and WebKit itself, so it's creating a separate, simpler fork named Blink. Although the new engine will be much the same as WebKit at the start, it's expected to differ over time as Google strips out unnecessary code and tweaks the underlying platform. We'd also expect it to spread, as the company has confirmed to us that both Chrome and Chrome OS will be using Blink in the future. We're safely distant from the Bad Old Days of wildly incompatible web engines, but the shift may prove a mixed blessing -- it could lead to more advancements on the web, but it also gives developers that much more code to support.
Update: The Next Web has confirmed that Opera, which recently ditched its Presto engine for Webkit, will indeed be using Blink as it's already hitching its proverbial wagon to Chromium.
Filed under: Internet, Software, Google
Source: Chromium Blog
It was only two days ago that ZeroDesktop launched MiiPC, a $99 kid-safe Android PC, and the Kickstarter campaign's already surpassed its $50,000 goal. To jog your memory, MiiPC is an attractive 4.7 x 4.7 x 3.1-inch desktop computer running Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean). It's powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Marvell New Armada SoC with 1GB of RAM, 4GB of flash storage, WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0. The system features an SD card slot in front, a power button on top and a full array of ports in the back, including two USB 2.0, HDMI, analog audio I/O, Ethernet and power.
What makes this device so unique is the software, which is optimized for use with a large screen (up to 1080p), keyboard and mouse. It provides a desktop-class web browsing experience with Flash and runs standard Android apps. MiiPC supports multiple user accounts which can be controlled and monitored remotely in real-time using a companion app for iOS and Android. The idea is for parents to create a safe online environment for their kids by managing their access to the web and to apps. We got the chance to play with a prototype MiiPC yesterday -- read our impressions and watch out hands-on video after the break.
Filed under: Desktops
Opera browser made a seismic shift when it dropped its long-in-the-tooth Presto engine in favor of WebKit, and now you can see the changes for yourself. It's up for grabs in beta on Google Play, packing the same rendering engine as its Chrome and Safari counterparts along with a handful of extra features. Those include an updated speed dial page for easier launching of favorite sites, off-road mode to conserve data, a discover tab and HTML5 support. We haven't seen it yet on iOS and there's no date for a final release, so keep in mind you'll be test-piloting the still-beta app -- check the source to grab it.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Via: Android Police
Source: Google Play
Think Opera is content at 300 million? That would be a rather silly notion for any company, of course, and naturally the browser is bumping up its efforts by making the jump to WebKit. This move will make Opera even more tempting for Android (phone and tablet) users who would never have given the browser even a sideways glance previously. The newer, fancier Opera throws in a few extra features. First, there's a launch page called speed dial that looks an awful lot like what we've seen in older versions; you can customize a bunch of shortcuts and links based on your overall usage and personal preferences, and toss all of them in folders. There's also an off-road mode, which essentially gives you the option to switch over to Opera Mini for extra data compression for those times you need it -- this obviously comes in handy when you're reaching your data threshold or just in a low-reception area. Lastly, HTML5 support is built in, as we would come to expect with a new browser these days.
Though we were originally told in January that we could expect Android and iOS versions of the browser sometime this month, representatives at the company's booth at MWC noted that what we're seeing is actually a pre-beta version and the final product is "coming soon" with no specific timetable given. This doesn't surprise us, as the demonstration had its fair share of bugs, but we will reserve judgment until we see it in its final form. As we patiently wait for the browser to make its public appearance, you can pine for it by drooling over the images in our gallery below.
Sean Cooper contributed to this hands-on.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Google
