Google’s decision to fork WebKit and launch its own Blink rendering engine came as a surprise when the company made the announcement just over a month ago. Yesterday at the Google I/O developer conference, the Blink team provided an update about the state of the engine. As Alex Komoroske, a product manager on Chrome’s Open Web Platform told the audience, the team has already removed 8.8 million lines of code from the original WebKit repository.

When Google first announced this move, the company argued that it was doing so because WebKit had become somewhat unwieldy to maintain because of the wide range of platforms it needs to support. In the process, WebKit development slowed down for all of the partners involved. The fork, the Blink team told me at the time, would allow them to “remove 7 build systems and delete more than 7,000 files—comprising more than 4.5 million lines—right off the bat.” Clearly, Google has been moving quickly to identify even more code in the WebKit source.

This not just about removing the crud from WebKit for the sake of it, however. The team argues that just over the last month, this move to Blink has already made all of the developers who are working on Blink far more productive than ever. Indeed, they argued that they don’t really need to hire more people now that they are going it alone because the individual developers are so much more productive.

The Blink team is already doing more than just removing code, too. Google also talked about a number of Blink experiments it is working on, including Oilpan, which tests putting DOM nodes in a garbage-collected heap, and Lazy Block Layout, which examines how the engine can speed up the rendering process for large web applications by just focusing on the parts of a site that are actually currently on the screen. In one demo, this system helped the team to bring down the rendering time of a very large page from 4 seconds to 32ms.

The team also noted that it’s already getting support from other companies that want to contribute, including Adobe, Intel and Microsoft, which just yesterday submitted a formal Intent to Implement to the Blink team to bring its Pointer Events API for interoperable mouse, touch, and pen interactions in the browser.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

If there was any question as to Sebastian Thrun and Udacity’s resolve to re-imagine higher education in a more affordable, accessible virtual classroom — or their ability to actually make any real headway among the Ivory Towers of academia — we should probably just go ahead and put that to bed. This morning, Udacity continues to push forward with its plans to bring higher education online — and not just in bits, pieces and homework assignments. Following 2U’s lead, which set the ball rolling by pioneering the approach of partnering with graduate programs to go beyond asynchronous video learning to create custom, accredited full-service web and mobile-compatible graduate degree programs.

To date, 2U has worked with graduate programs in nursing, education, law, business and international, and today, Udacity took the next step — in what could mark an important moment for STEM education — announcing that it has partnered with Georgia Tech to jointly offer an accredited master’s degree in computer science, completely online. Not only that, but thanks to support from AT&T, the program will be offered for less than $7,000. So, really, this could be not just an important moment for STEM, but for MOOCs and online education as a whole.

The other point of note here is that Georgia Tech ain’t no safety school. According to U.S. News’ rankings of the best engineering schools in the U.S., Georgia Tech is tied for fifth place with Carnegie Mellon. So, it looks like Coursera and EdX aren’t the only ones providing online educational experiences with content from elite universities.

Furthermore, tuition (full-time, out of state) for Georgia Tech is $26,860 — which makes Udacity’s online degree look more than a little appealing in comparison. However, while anyone will be able to sign up and take Udacity’s Computer Science courses for free, only those actually enrolled at Georgia Tech will be able to earn credits towards a degree. The companies plan to launch a pilot of the program in the fall of 2014, beginning with a couple hundred students.

As for AT&T, it’s not exactly crystal clear what the company’s role in the partnership is, other than providing what the announcement calls “generous” support. Naturally, of course, AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson thinks the partnership has transformative potential. He said:

We believe that high-quality and 100 percent online degrees can be on par with degrees received in traditional on-campus settings, and that this program could be a blueprint for helping the United States address the shortage of people with STEM degrees, as well as exponentially expand access to computer science education for students around the world.

Again, while the idea itself isn’t new, and Udacity isn’t the first to partner with an elite graduate program to provide quality education and an actual, graduate-level degree to students online, the quality of the academic program (and presumably its content), its focus on Computer Science, combined with its relative affordability and the ability to receive credit and complete a full, graduate-level degree online, is absolutely huge. Sure, the launch is still quite a ways off, which is at once makes the announcement perhaps a little bit premature, but is also evidence that they’re taking the development of this program seriously. No status quo.

This is also refreshing news, because, over the last year, there’s been a huge amount of buzz around massive open online course (MOOC) platforms, particularly around Udacity, Coursera, EdX and 2U, among a few others. With how much play MOOCs have gotten in education and in the media, it’s as if MOOCs are expected to employ some kind of techno-voodoo magic to totally “save” higher education from collapsing under its own weight.

Of course, since online courses are far from being new, some questioned just how innovative, effective (and collaborative) MOOC platforms actually are at the end of the day. And for good reason. Porting a lecture hall to YouTube or putting your professor in a Google Hangout probably won’t end higher education. At least, not on its own.

Is accessibility important? Yes, of course. But even in the traditionally offline world of higher education, “scalable” and “cloud” can only act as stand-ins for real “innovation” for so long before schools will want to see more. There still needs to be substantial proof that MOOC platforms offer a better learning experience (improve outcomes and retention rates), before higher ed simply turns over the keys to the kingdom.

Reservations aside, what Thrun and Udacity have done in a relatively short amount of time is impressive and everyone — not just teachers — should be keeping tabs. In January, Udacity already played a part in a potentially key symbolic moment for higher ed, as California Governor Jerry Brown approved a partnership with San Jose State University to create Udacity-powered, low-cost and lower-division online classes.

This was significant because it was really the first time a MOOC platform has been tapped to build a complete, automated (remedial) class experience online — let alone state-wide at the largest university system in the world.

As of April, the pilot had seen 85 percent retention going into midterms. At time time, EdSurge noted that it’s not the 100 percent retention rate Thrun has boasted about previously, but it’s not a bad start.

In the big picture, it may not seem important, but retention rates are critical for online courses and course platforms. If entire remedial classes are being automated/flipped, they need to be more effective than their offline counterparts. (Un)fortunately, our current education system has set the bar pretty low on this one, which will hopefully make it easy to leap over it.

But, on the other hand, universities have limited resources, and class sizes continue to grow as more and more people go (or return) to universities, community colleges and continuing education programs. Online platforms take the scale issue out of the equation, but droves of students now matriculate with little to no grasp of fundamental concepts, San Jose State Provost and Vice President Ellen Junn told TechCrunch in January.

If technology and online education are going to truly transform education, maintaining the status quo isn’t acceptable, especially if these automated courses replace or curb the need for real, live human teachers. So, not to be party pooper or anything, but while this program has significant implications, it’s still all about quality content/presentation, improving retention, outcomes and ye olde learning experience. Without that, scale and affordability don’t mean quite as much.

Find Georgia Tech’s announcement here and Sebastian’s blog post here.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

At last year’s I/O, Google launched its Cloud Messaging push notification service for Android. This week, it extended this service to Chrome and Chrome OS, which, Google says, allows Chrome apps and extension developers to wake up their apps remotely and/or send alerts to users.

While mobile app developers have long been familiar with the concept of push notifications, this is a pretty novel service for web developers. Unless a Chrome app or extension is running in the background and pulling down information from the service, after all, users can’t usually receive alerts like news updates or stock ticker notifications from the developers’ servers.

Google product manager Mark Scott writes in his announcement that ”event pages keep apps and extensions efficient by allowing them to respond to a variety of events, such as timers or navigation to a particular site, without having to remain running persistently.” This works, but it does consume bandwidth and reduce battery life if you are on a laptop or Chromebook.

Cloud Messaging for Chrome, on the other hand, allows developers to push messages directly to signed-in users. As long as the user is signed in and on a machine where the app or extension is installed, the alerts should automatically start appearing.

To get developers started with this service, the Chrome team has published a couple of sample apps, as well as a pretty in-depth tutorial.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Top Hat Monocle, the Toronto-based provider of mobile-based classroom response systems, has decided to get Lasik and has dropped the ‘monocle’ from its name and logo. Top Hat, as the company will now be known, is celebrating this move with the launch of a redesigned corporate site at TopHat.com and, more importantly, it also switching to a freemium model where classes with fewer than 30 students can now use its tools for free.

The tool was always free for educators, but students had to pay $20 per semester to subscribe to the service. As Andrew D’Souza, Top Hat’s COO told me yesterday, the company decided to make this switch in order to accommodate a number of different scenarios. Many teachers, for example, want to adopt Top Hat in the middle of the semester but don’t want to have to ask their students to pay at that point. Some also just want to try it, but they don’t want their students to have to sign up and pay – especially if they aren’t sure that they’ll continue to use it. Top Hat is also seeing strong interest from teachers in K-12 schools and this switch should help them to use its tools, too. The 30-person limit, he told me, is meant to ensure that the company’s costs for offering the free service (mostly SMS fees), remain reasonable.

“Our goal is to put Top Hat in the hands of every student and teacher” D’Souza said in the announcement today. “With this new pricing model, we’re eliminating the barrier for instructors to give the platform a try in their class. We expect this to significantly accelerate the word-of-mouth-driven adoption we’re already seeing.”

As for the name change, D’Souza told me that for a mobile-first company, “Top Hat Monocle” was always a very long name. Half-jokingly, he also added that ‘monocle’ turned out to be hard to spell for many users. Quite a few people were already referring to the company as ‘Top Hat’ anyway and the team decided that the tool had enough brand recognition that making the switch wasn’t very risky.

Top Hat is currently being used in 350 universities worldwide.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Today, Google announced the eventual rollout of a brand new look for its Admin Console, an area that only admins of Google Apps will see. The aim of the redesign is to help those admins get to information quicker, manage user accounts easier and keep their company running as smooth as possible. The company boasts that “millions” of businesses, schools and government agencies are using Google Apps, so making sure that the Admin Console is as easy to use as possible is key to getting buy-in.

According to the Admin Console FAQ, this new look has been available for new users as of April 17th, but this announcement signals the invitation to all customers.

Some of the things being introduced to the Admin Console, which rolls out in a few weeks, are a universal search bar, new usage and activity stats at a glance, some bulk user actions and a customizable dashboard. The dashboard will let admins drag-and-drop the areas of Apps that they use the most, making it easier to do things like add new users or help employees out with password issues:

Additionally, and while this might seem minor to most of us, the Admin Console now lives at an easier to remember URL, admin.google.com. That’s one of those tweaks that makes you wonder why it took so long.

Here’s a complete demo of what’s new in the Admin Console:

[Photo credit: Flickr]

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Haven’t quite gotten your fill of the Galaxy S4? We haven’t, either. First came the announcement, then the obligatory berating posts about the crazy launch event, followed by the review, which brings us to this fateful judgement day.

Will the Galaxy S4 fly or die?

The answer is clear, and still multi-layered.

There’s no doubt that the Galaxy S4 — packed to the max with the best specs in town — will sell more than its predecessor, the Galaxy S III. Not only does it have a 5-inch 1080p display, a speedy little quad-core Snapdragon 600 CPU, 2GB of RAM, and a 13-megapixel camera, but it has a whole bevy of new software features that are sure to delight and surprise.

But what does the GS4 tells us about Samsung’s greater strategy? Well, it’s clear that the Galaxy S4 morphs Android to something beyond recognition, which is almost entirely Samsung-influenced.

Many of the stellar features like AirView are baked in on an OS level, and you can expect to see even further deviation from the Android ecosystem (while still being the industry leader on Android) as we move forward.

Still, you’d be hard-pressed to find much to complain about with the Galaxy S4.

Fly on, Samsung. Fly on.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

After three years of slow roll outs and testing with specific partners, Twitter’s Senior Director of Product for Revenue Kevin Weil just announced the general availability of its advertising options for all US business. Businesses don’t need an invite any more. Weil revealed the move on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt, which could ramp up revenues and prep Twitter for a widely anticipated IPO.

Twitter first announced in April 2010 that it would begin showing ads. Since then it’s revealed Promoted Tweets and Promoted accounts, which let businesses pay to get their updates seen and their profiles followed. More recently, Twitter announced limited availability of a self-serve tool for buying ads in March 2012, and an Ads API for programmatic buying of huge campaigns in February 2013. Then just last week, Twitter announced that its ads could be targeted based on keywords tweeted or within tweets engaged with by users, which lets Twitter move toward demand fulfillment like Google Search ads.

Weil explained on stage, “As most of you guys know, the Twitter advertising platform has until today has been invite only. We’ve had brands and agencies, thousands of small businesses using the platform but all on an invite-only basis. Today we’re taking the next step and opening up Twitter ads to everyone in the US. Every brand, every business, every account, every individual. Businesses have been on Twitter since day one and we’re really excited that today every business in the US is going to be able to leverage the power of Twitter advertising, either through Promoted Accounts to build a loyal follower-base, or through Promoted Tweets to reach a broader audience.” In a bit of a cheeky move, he said on stage that he would tweet this link, giving the first 100 people to click $50 in free Twitter ad credits. You can watch the announcement below.

Anyone can now go to Twitter’s newly opened self-serve interface to start buying Twitter ads. Advertisers can choose a location to target, and the interests of the people they want to reach, decide what type of ads to run, and set a daily budget. Along with Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts, businesses can use Twitter’s business analytics system to track the impact of their spend.

The ads rollout means the microblogging platform can start more seriously competing with other social outlets like Facebook and LinkedIn for ad dollars. Some expect Twitter to hit $950 million in revenue in 2014, largely from ads. That could be enough to lure advertisers to invest in the company if it in fact IPOs. Getting its ad business humming on mobile before announcing any move to go public could let Twitter avoid the bashing Facebook’s share price received when it IPO’d. Facebook had mobile ads running for just three months at that time despite users shifting to the small screen in droves, and the lack of proof that its mobile ad business would work was widely cited by investors as why $FB lost 30% of its value soon after hitting the market.

With so many businesses now competing for followers, the ability to pay for extra visibility can make the difference between obscurity and prominence. Meanwhile, direct advertisers with things to sell online can capitalize on Promoted Tweets to get extra clicks to their shopping pages. While once seen as a niche service for techies, Twitter has grown into a core way the world communicates about their opinions, media, and current events. The ability to insert themselves into these conversations and take advantage of digital word of mouth is drawing dollars away from one-way traditional media towards Twitter where businesses can have a real dialog with their customers.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Canadian broadcasting executive Kirstine Stewart has joined Twitter as managing director for Twitter Canada.

The announcement was just tweeted by Adam Bain, Twitter’s president of global revenue. He also noted that Stewart is the first team member for Twitter Canada, and that the company is looking to do more hiring in Toronto.

Stewart is leaving her position as executive vice president for English services at CBC-Radio Canada. According to her CBC bio, she joined the company in 2006 and “her role has been to revolutionize the CBC as the modern public broadcaster,” for example by developing a strategic plan for broadband and mobile content.

Following the announcement, I had a quick conversation with Stewart, who told me that she has been a “longtime champion of great content.” Twitter, she said, is doing “incredibly exciting” things on that front. Plus, through things like the recently announced partnership with ad giant StarCom MediaVest, the company is “really setting itself up as quite the partner.”

It sounds like the opening of a new office has less to do with making a big push with consumers (Stewart said Canadian Twitter usage is already significant) and more with ad sales and partnerships. Steart told me that the work of establishing that office — not just hiring a team but actually finding an office location — will be taking place over the course of the summer.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Without proper care batteries can wither and die like a delicate tulip roasting in the bright sun from an unseasonably warm spring day — a fact made exponentially worse when the battery in your $60k vehicle no longer functions properly.

With that in mind, Tesla just unveiled an impressive new warranty for the Model S battery pack. With the notable exception of a vehicle accident or a curious owner opening the battery pack, under this new plan, Tesla will replace the battery pack for any reason including user error and improper maintenance.

Best of all, users do not have to worry about servicing the vehicle on a regular basis. Annual checkups are now completely optional, meaning the warranty will still be valid if the owner never takes the vehicle in for service.

Tesla states in a blog post today that the company took great pains in developing a proper battery and therefore if something goes wrong, it’s on them, not the owner.

If needed, the battery will be replaced with a factory reconditioned unit with an energy capacity equal to or better than the original pack before the failure occurred.

Sounds like a fair deal for the pricey Model S.

Better yet, Tesla also announced a service loaner program in which if an owner’s Model S needs to go in for service, the company will deliver a fully decked out Model S as a loaner until the original is repaired. Take a shine to the fancy loaner? No worries, Tesla will let you keep the loaner and pay a price that is lower by 1% per month of age and $1 per mile. As Tesla notes in the announcement, this practice will ensure the loaner fleet is constantly refreshed with new vehicles rather than becoming the equivalent of a rental car fleet.

If nothing else, Tesla and its billionaire founder are becoming very good at playing the media game. This announcement comes just weeks after the company rolled out a new payment plan (complete with a very shady marketing plan) to make the Model S more affordable. And let’s not forget Musk just not-so-quietly put up $50k of his own cash to speed up construction on LA’s 405 freeway. Why pay for press when you can get it for free?

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

As partygoers decend into DC for the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, TechCrunch wanted to remind the nation’s policy wonks of the startups that are keeping America on the cutting edge of innovation. So, we’re inviting proud geeks to party with us at the swanky new headquarters of startup incubator, 1776.

On Friday, April 26th from 8pm-11pm, Aol founder Steve Case co-hosts the 1776 grand opening with patriotic-themed desserts, a full bar, and a (brief) thoughtful discussion on immigration, Internet taxes, and startups with Congressmen Darrell Issa and Joaquin Caster–after which there will be a rocking band and a lot of great friends who geek out over both open source and open government.

It turns out that the technology industry is kind of the cool kid in the nation’s capitol. Word got out about the event before this announcement and it was so popular, we sold out of our initial round of 600 tickets in 48 hours. So, we’re opening up a few hundred more. Go to 1776.Eventbrite.com and sign up as quickly as you can or you’ll miss out.

Thanks to Sponsors Steve and Jean Case, AT&T, and the Consumer Electronics Association.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch