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Adobe Edge adds Flash-like animation to Web design

In a new phase of its attempt to grow beyond Flash, Adobe Systems has begun showing off a design tool called Edge that lets designers animate Web page elements using standard Web technology.

The tool gives a graphical user interface to Web design to automate programming that otherwise would require more technical knowledge of HTML5, the next-generation version of Hypertext Markup Language now under development, and CSS, the Cascading Style Sheets standard for formatting and now some animated transitions.

With it, designers can drop images or Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) elements onto a canvas that's connected to an animation … Read more

Best of Buzz Out Loud 6: IBM Turns 100, Laser Jellyfish and Facebook Guns for Apple. (Podcast)

100 Years of IBM milestones, scientists combine a human cell and a jellyfish into a living laser and Facebook is armed wih HTML5 and going after Apple.

Offline Google Docs starts playing peek-a-boo

One of the big criticisms of Google's Chromebooks is that they're significantly less useful when you don't have an Internet connection or are paying by the megabyte for a wireless data plan. That drawback is particularly glaring when it comes to Google Docs.

And unfortunately for Google, the company missed the Chrome OS launch window with one important upgrade coming to Google Docs, the ability to use the word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation software while not connected to the Net.

Offline Google Docs was slated to arrive early this year, but Google pushed it back. In May, … Read more

Microsoft tries accelerating mobile Web progress

Apparently happy with its test drive effort to promote the combination of advanced Web programming and its new IE9 browser for Windows PCs, Microsoft is trying the same formula with its mobile browser.

The company unveiled its Mobile Test Drive site yesterday as a showcase for what can be done with mobile browsers.

"It's organized essentially the same way as the original, except laid out to be easily read and used on the mobile form factor," said Joe Marini, principal program manager for Internet Explorer on Windows Phone, in a blog post. "We've ported over … Read more

Web apps get the ultimate endorsement: Windows 8

With the Internet's importance steadily gaining, it's not as if Web programmers needed an ego boost. But Microsoft has given them a major one anyway with a radical change coming in Windows 8.

The next-gen Windows will come with a new programming foundation, letting developers build native apps with the same techniques they use for Web applications. Microsoft calls this new variety "tailored apps."

It's a bold move for the company. Microsoft's financial fortunes have depended heavily on Windows sales, and Windows' continued momentum has depended heavily on the wide range of software written … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1491: The lost episode (Podcast)

A power surge mid-show knocked us, Donald's birthday celebration, and the rest of the episode offline. Here's what we managed to salvage from the wreckage ... at least you can read the stories and emails for yourselves! See you tomorrow!

Windows 8 and anxiety over HTML5

By sending signals that it's inclined to move Windows 8 coding toward HTML5 and JavaScript, and away from more familiar programming tools, Microsoft has "horrified" developers, according to a post at Ars Technica.

Citing a demo of Windows 8 given by Microsoft Vice President Julie Larson-Green at the recent D9 conference, Ars Technica author Peter Bright called attention to a comment several minutes into the video. Pointing to a new app in the upcoming Windows 8, Larson-Green said that "this application is written with our new developer platform, which is based on HTML5 and JavaScript."… Read more

Google adds feature to link content to its author

Google users interested in the work of a particular author or writer should now find it easier to track down that person's articles, stories, and bio.

Starting yesterday, the search giant started supporting a feature in HTML5 that allows Web sites to link content from a particular writer to that writer's bio or other relevant pages.

As one example cited by Google engineer Othar Hansson in a blog posted yesterday, The New York Times could use the special authorship markup tag to link every story by a particular reporter to that reporter's bio page, which could then … Read more

CSS 2.1 emerges as official Web standard

Much of the Web world has moved on to CSS 3, but today the World Wide Web Consortium has declared the CSS 2.1 standard for Web page formatting to be done.

In W3C standards lingo, CSS 2.1 has reached "recommendation" stage. Phillipe Le Hegaret, leader of the HTML working at the W3C group, announced the milestone on Twitter today.

Browser makers, even longtime laggard Microsoft, have turned much of their attention to CSS 3, which offers glamorous new features such as animating the transition from one page to another, endowing boxes with rounded corners, and if … Read more

W3C officially opens HTML5 to scrutiny

The World Wide Web Consortium has reached an important point in the long journey to standardize HTML5, the next version of the Hypertext Markup Language used to describe Web pages.

HTML5 officially reached "last call" status this week, which means the W3C believes it's got a version of the specification mature enough for organizations to decide whether to express support. But changes still could come: "In practice, last call announcements generate comments that sometimes result in substantive changes to a document," the W3C said in announcing that HTML5 reached last call.

Hypertext Markup Language is … Read more