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Google Chrome 18 brings two methods of improved graphics support to both newer and older computers. Released today, Google Chrome 18 stable for Windows (download), Mac (download), Linux (download), and Chrome Frame improves both WebGL and Canvas2D.

To help along WebGL in Chrome on older Windows and Mac computers, it now gets a boost from a software rasterizer called SwiftShader, licensed from TransGaming. SwiftShader only works when Chrome's baked-in graphics processor acceleration doesn't run, and in the blog post announcing the update, Google said that it sought out this third-party solution so that "more users will have … Read more

Adobe Systems released Flash Player 11.2 today -- along with a plan to make the browser plug-in a direct source of revenue for the company.

In the past, the Silicon Valley company has charged programmers to use development tools such as Flash Pro. But for any games published August 1 or later that use premium features in the new version of Flash Player, Adobe will require programmers to pay.

More specifically, Adobe will require developers to share 9 percent of net revenue beyond $50,000 for using the premium features, Adobe announced today. The premium features are Stage 3D … Read more

In the ongoing debate over apps vs. HTML5, a Pew survey finds that tech experts believe the Web will be more dominant in 2020 relative to apps.

According to the survey released today, 35 percent of respondents see apps as the dominant way to deliver content, but 59 percent choose the Web. The rest didn't pick.

The exact wording of the pro-app statement went like this:

"In 2020, most people will prefer to use specific applications (apps) accessible by Internet connection to accomplish most online work, play, communication, and content creation. The ease of use and perceived security … Read more

Android is gradually slipping down mobile programmers' priority list, with Web apps stepping in to as an answer to development difficulties, a survey released today concludes.

Appcelerator, maker of cross-platform programming tools used by 280,000 programmers to create 35,000 apps, tallied the changes in its quarterly survey. In it, the number of programmers who said they were "very interested" in programming for Android phones declined for a second quarter in a row, this time from about 83.3 percent to 78.6 percent. Android tablet interest also continued a decline for a second quarter, from about … Read more

Chris Blizzard, a high-profile figure in the Firefox world, has left his job as Mozilla's director of Web platform to join a startup.

"I'm trying something new and starting in the next week or so I'm going to be joining a very small startup that's based in Palo Alto," Blizzard said in his announcement last week on his blog. "I happened to stumble across an amazing team that's doing great (and difficult!) work that deals with the intersection of systems, compilers, and web-scale problems."

Blizzard has been in charge of the &… Read more

As Adobe Systems prepares to release Creative Suite 6, it's in the midst of two major shifts: the addition of its Creative Cloud subscription and the addition of design tools using Web standards.

And we want to know what you think of the change.

In conjunction with Jefferies, a financial research and investment banking firm, CNET is conducting a quick survey about Adobe's Creative Cloud and embrace of Web standards. It's only nine multiple-choice questions long, so it's very fast and easy to fill out.

We'll be publishing results of the survey later so you can see if other people see things your way. If you are open to us asking you follow-up questions, you can leave your e-mail address at the end of the survey, but it's completely optional. Of course, you also can leave comments on this post. … Read more

Both iOS and Android support HTML5 in the browser, but according to a new study, Apple's platform is doing a much better job of handling it.

Spaceport, a company that provides tools for developers to create multiplatform mobile games, revealed in a study published yesterday that Apple's iPad is about four times better at handling HTML5 in the browser than competing Android-based tablets. On the smartphone side, the average iPhone performance about triples Android-based handsets.

In order to arrive at those figures, Spaceport examined the maximum number of images that could be smoothly pushed through HTML5 in mobile … Read more

BARCELONA--It's been an action-packed two years since Jeff Jaffe took over as the World Wide Web Consortium's chief executive, but more action is the order of the day at the standards group.

The W3C oversees the standardization of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), technologies that carry tremendous importance as the Web expands from a medium to publish documents into a foundation for applications that can run on anything from mobile phones and cars to TVs and tablets. These Web standards, combined with the JavaScript programming language and other related technologies, let programmers reach a … Read more

Editor's note: This is a guest post by Bruno Fernandez-Ruiz, whose bio is below. CNET invited him to write about Yahoo's new approach to mobile development.

The much-hyped HTML5 Web standard is often positioned as the alternative to native application development. However, the reality is that WC3's HTML5 alone is not enough at this pivotal time in Web history. Which is why at Yahoo we're determined to return to our tech-first roots and help the Web evolve by pioneering the next application platform.

And guess what? It's more than HTML5.

We believe the answer is … Read more