Viewing that the adoption of Android 4.0 has fallen short of original expectations and Microsoft will launch Windows 8 in the third quarter of 2012, Google is likely to launch Android 5.0 (Jelly Bean) in the second quarter and appeal for adopting Android 5.0 and Windows 8 in the same tablet PC, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers. Add a comment Read more...

Internet Explorer Performance Lab: reliably measuring browser performance

Web performance matters to everyone, and one engineering objective for Internet Explorer is to be the world’s fastest browser. To achieve this goal we need to reliably measure browser performance against the real world scenarios that matter to our customers. Over the last five years we designed and built the Internet Explorer Performance Lab, one of the world’s most sophisticated web performance measurement systems.

The IE Performance Lab collects reliable, accurate, and actionable data to inform decisions throughout the development cycle. We measure the performance of Internet Explorer 200 times daily, collecting over 5.7 million measurements and 480GB of runtime data each day. We understand the impact of every change to the product and ensure that Internet Explorer only gets faster. This blog post takes a deep look at how the IE Performance Lab is designed and how we use the lab to ensure we’re continually making the web faster. Add a comment Read more...

FTC: Kids Need to Have More Protection when Using Apps

Today, the FTC has required both Apple and Android to do more in protecting the apps their young consumers buy for their mobile devices. FTC has examined a number of mobile apps intended for children and sold through both the Apple App Store and the Android Marketplace. Out of this number, FTC examined 8,000 iOS apps and 3,800 Android apps. The researchers put in charge of this were able to discover that in almost all of these apps, there was no way for parents to tell the type of information being collected by the app maker; as well as how the information obtained gets stored or shared. Add a comment Read more...

Android (OS): Why do mobile phone manufacturers using Android have to pay Microsoft a patent fee?

The simple answer is that Microsoft has built up a giant patent portfolio over the years related to mobile software and touchscreen devices, thanks to both basic R&D and its long history of software development for handheld/portable devices, going back to the first Windows CE devices in the late '90s. They see a chance to make money by using their IP and legal muscle to get Android vendors to pay royalties on device sales, and are taking advantage. Add a comment Read more...