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Shareworthy articles and content syndicated from other sites. These aren’t things I’ve written or necessarily endorse, for the record.

Mozilla’s Webian Shell interface will cloak your OS in a browser (video)

With Google’s fleet of Chromebooks making their way to market, Mozilla Labs has decided to release a similarly browser-based desktop interface, known as the Webian Shell. As of now, the prototype app consists of a screen-encompassing web browser, which essentially replaces your desktop interface. There’s an address bar running across the top of the screen, a clock in the bottom right corner, and a tab button for all your web apps. Developed as part of the company’s Mozilla Chromeless project, the tool was written entirely in HTML, CSS and JavaScript and, unlike Chrome OS, is designed to run on top of existing operating systems, rather than replace them. For now, the Shell is still in an early phase of development, looks pretty spartan and can’t control a system’s hardware. Mozilla, however, says it has plans to incorporate multiple home screens, split screen views and an on-screen keyboard, among other features. Windows, Linux and Mac OS X users can download the Shell now, from the source link. Otherwise, you can just head past the break to see a brief demo video.

Continue reading Mozilla’s Webian Shell interface will cloak your OS in a browser (video)

Mozilla’s Webian Shell interface will cloak your OS in a browser (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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E3 2011: Need for Speed: The Run to use Frostbite 2 engine, has foot chases

The new Need for Speed game, The Run got its premier showing at the EA press conference. For the first time in the series, the game will feature on foot chase sequences.

The demonstration showed a car chase with accurately modelled collisions, powered by the destructability tech in the Frostbite 2 engine. Once the car was totalled, the driver ran from the car and an on-foot chase began.

The chase sequence seemed to consist of a series of quick-time events that powered a series of insane, roof-leaping actions. At one point the driver beats up a cop, steals his car, and the chase resumes.

Need for Speed: The Run will use Autolog, the stat tracking, socialising and stat tracking system featured in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. This time, however, Autolog will track your actions, and use that information to change the storyline. It’s unclear right now exactly how the tech will work, but we’ll know more when we hit the show floor over the next couple of days.

eBay Acquires Open Source Ecommerce Company Magento

ebay image

Ebay announced Monday that it has agreed to acquire Magento Inc., the company behind the open source ecommerce platform Magento.

In the announcement, eBay said that Magento will join the company’s new X.Commerce initiative. X.Commerce is eBay’s integrated open source platform group that will be revealed to developers in more depth in October.

On the Magento blog, CEO and co-founder Roy Rubin posted about the sale. Rubin writes that “it’s too soon to know all the details” but following the close of the sale, “Magento will continue to operate out of Los Angeles, with Yoav Kutner and me as its leaders.”

Magento also posted a FAQ [PDF] page for its customers, but at least to us, this did little to clarify what will actually happen to Magento moving forward and left us with more questions.

Although Magento will continue to operate out of Los Angeles and its staff there and in Ukraine have been retained, there was no real answer to the question “will Magento continue as a standalone product.” Instead, it looks like what is now Magento will become a big part of eBay’s upcoming X.Commerce platform.

Magento will continue to work with its existing partners and customers of its hosted and supported solutions. As for the open source Magento Community Edition, not much is known what it means for the product at this point.

For eBay, the move is interesting, especially in conjunction with PayPal and the various PayPal X initiatives. Magento is an opportunity for eBay to offer businesses a soup-to-nuts ecommerce solution, from hosting to payment processing to mobile.

More About: acquisitions, ebay, ecommerce, magento, startups

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There’s the iPad and then there are tablets

Apple invigorated the consumer tablet market with the January 2010 introduction of the iPad, but don’t call it a tablet. Research from Experian Hitwise shows the top 10 online searches for tablet don’t have either the words “Apple” or “iPad” in the list. Instead, various combinations of the word “tablet” with other manufacturer names comprise the list, indicating consumers believe there’s the Apple iPad and then there’s everything else when it comes to tablets.

So what are consumers searching for when researching tablets online? The four weeks ending May 28 yielded these results, per the Hitwise research:

  1. android tablet
  2. tablet pc
  3. tablet
  4. acer tablet
  5. tablet computer
  6. blackberry tablet
  7. coby tablet
  8. toshiba tablet
  9. viewsonic g tablet
  10. asus tablet

This indicates that much like its iPhone, Apple has succeeded in building iPad as a brand and less as a tablet computer. In fact, as soon as I started carrying around the 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab in public, the most often asked question I received was: “Is that a small iPad?” It’s only now — after a few months of Google Android tablet availability — that those questions have stopped.

Another interesting point jumped out when reviewing the list of search terms: Not a single one of them actually mentions the name of a specific tablet, telling me other tablet makers have work to do with their product recognition and marketing. Instead of searching for the Acer Iconia tablet (see our review here), for example, consumers search for a generic Acer tablet more often. The same goes for several other device manufacturers, including Research In Motion.

Ironcially, RIM doesn’t make a tablet that runs on the BlackBerry operating system, but instead, it runs on QNX and is called the PlayBook. It’s great for RIM that BlackBerry is a popular search term, but not so good that the word “PlayBook” isn’t coming to consumers’ minds when thinking of RIM’s tablet, which despite some notable software shortcomings has much to like. Luckily, RIM named the device BlackBerry PlayBook to leverage its popular BlackBerry brand.

Perhaps the oddest bit from the search list is the second item, “tablet pc”. Microsoft introduced Tablet PCs a decade ago. However, the computers, first with digital pens and later with touch screens, haven’t enjoyed nearly the success of Apple’s iPad. As a result, I’m wondering if the venerable “tablet PC” term means different things to different people because none of the Android tablets, nor the iPad, are devices I’d equate with a Tablet PC. Of course, the search term may be good news for Microsoft, given it recently showed off a touch-friendly version of Windows 8, which is sure to be used on future Tablet PCs running Windows.

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