Adblock Plus developer pokes holes in Mozilla's new add-on performance tests

Wladimir Palant, developer of the most popular add-on in the world, Adblock Plus, is also an active contributor to the Planet Mozilla blog community. Over the last few days, in response to Mozilla's new name and shame list of slow add-ons, Palant has been investigating whether Mozilla's testing methods are actually accurate.

Rather surprisingly, it turns out that Mozilla's numbers could be significantly wrong -- and if they're not wrong, the factors that Mozilla uses to tabulate an add-ons final score should definitely be made more transparent.

In the first set of tests, Palant shows that FlashGot's position in the top 10 is probably due to a fault in Mozilla's testing setup, and that add-ons can perform very differently depending on which operating system they're being tested on. In the second analysis, Palant uncovers an irregularity that doesn't seem to have an obvious cause -- but it could be due to an I/O bottleneck on Mozilla's test machines. Basically, even though performance testing of Read It Later is disabled because of a bug, it still (somehow!) manages to record a 14% slow-down on Windows 7.

Palant concludes both analyses by scolding Mozilla for going public with the performance data before its testing methods had been confirmed accurate. It definitely looks like Mozilla has been more than a little reckless, considering the importance of Firefox's add-on ecosystem.

Adblock Plus developer pokes holes in Mozilla's new add-on performance tests originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 05:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/08/adblock-plus-developer-pokes-holes-in-mozillas-new-add-on-perfo/

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Martian Mystery Solved [Video]

Earlier this week, a strange silhouette appeared on one of the early pictures taken by the Mars Curiosity rover's Hazard-Avoidance Cams. Shortly after that picture was taken, the mysterious shadow was gone, causing a firestorm among conspiracy theorists worldwide. More »


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Alt-week 8.11.12: Robo-billies, quasicrystals and radioactive art

Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days.

Alt-week 8.11.12: Robo-billies, quasicrystals and radioactive art

It's not like we're trying to out-weird ourselves, it just, somehow, keeps happening. At least one of this week's offerings (we'll leave it to you to figure out which) will possibly be the creepiest thing we post all year. As for the rest, well it's slightly more palatable. We'll get uncharacteristically pumped about cycling, meet some extra-terrestrial quasicrystals and enjoy some art with X-men credentials. This is alt-week.

Continue reading Alt-week 8.11.12: Robo-billies, quasicrystals and radioactive art

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Alt-week 8.11.12: Robo-billies, quasicrystals and radioactive art originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 11 Aug 2012 15:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/11/alt-week-8-11-12-robo-billies-quasicrystals-and-radioactive-ar/

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Dodge is a space-shooter in which you have no weapons

dodge
Space-shooters are usually a fairly fiery affair, with many types of guns, weapon upgrades, power-ups and more. Dodge does away with all of that, while keeping the very essence of a space shooter: Dark background, fast action, and stuff blowing up all over the place.

Your vector-looking spacecraft is the fastest thing on the screen, most of the time. And as the header implies, you have absolutely no weapons; you can't get any, either. All you have is agility and maneuverability.

Your opponents shoot heat-seeking missiles at you; the missiles lock on and start tracking you. The trick is to dodge the missiles while putting them in the path of one of your enemies, thus letting them have a taste of their own medicine.

There are three types of enemies, at least in the first few levels: "simple" spaceships which fire slow projectiles, "tanks" which seem to be more serious and take more hits to destroy, and "circles." The circles simply explode, spewing twenty or thirty very fast projectiles. This sounds dangerous, but is actually great once you learn to use them; they are very destructive for tanks, and can even blow up other circles.

The soundtrack is very techno, but it meshes very well with this type of game. Intense fun!

Dodge is a space-shooter in which you have no weapons originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/01/dodge-is-a-space-shooter-in-which-you-have-no-weapons/

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Apple Retail reportedly price-matching discounted iPhones

Apple is reportedly matching the close to $50 discount carriers and retailers have begun offering on the iPhone 4S. While carriers and retailers typically start discounting the current iPhone as it approaches the 1 year mark, and a next generation iPhone looms on the horizon, Apple matching them is somewhat surprising. Eric Slivka reports for MacRumors

A source has now revealed to MacRumors that Apple's retail stores have been given authorization to match these discounted prices from approved major retailers and carriers. In all cases, Apple will discount iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 models by $49.01 upon request.

Retail only, of course, not online. And bring the proof of the price you want them to match. Given Apple's stellar customer service, the extra hassle in getting the price match is worth it. All other things being equal, especially price, if you can't wait a month for an iPhone 5 and need a new phone now, now, now, go to Apple and save your $50 bucks there.

Anyone pulling the trigger?

Source: MacRumors

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/coaQQSFmL3Y/story01.htm

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Pulse news reader comes to the Mac via web app

Pulse news reader comes to the Mac via web app

Pulse, one of the more popular news reader apps for iPhone and iPad, now has a Mac counterpart. While it isn't a native app, the web app version is full featured and manages to maintain the same great interface its iOS counterparts already enjoy.

We recently pitted Pulse against Zite and Flipboard and while we still prefer Zite, there are going to be many users out there who like the interface and fluidity of Pulse better. If that sounds like you, the web app won't disappoint and you'll feel right at home.

If you already use Pulse on your iPhone or iPad, you can just log in to Pulse on the web with your user ID and all your stuff will come right down. If you're a new user you can pick a few categories to get you started.

Check it out via the link below and let us know what you think!

Source: Pulse

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Samsung getting together with Boost and Virgin Aug. 22 in NYC

Samsung-Boost-Virgin

It's going to be a contract-free love fest on Aug. 22 in New York City as Samsung's getting together with Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile for some "big mobile news." Not much to say beyond that -- we could be looking at just about anything here. A Galaxy S3 would be a good guess though, but Samsung's got enough phones in play that it really could be something else. Only one way to find out.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/JNFDIFXWN8E/story01.htm

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Adidas Social Media Barricade shoe concept moves tweets to the track (video)

Adidas Social Media Shoe concept moves tweets to the track

Adidas is known for making connected shoes -- but never quite as linked-up as a Nash Money concept making its appearance late into the London Olympics. The Social Media Barricade weaves the guts of a phone and a basic two-line LCD into a running shoe, letting the footwear take Twitter updates very literally on the run through a public account. Even the signature Adidas stripes change their hue through remote control. Before anyone gets visions of athletes checking congratulatory tweets after the 100-meter sprint, just remember that it's an idea rather than a production blueprint: although Adidas is quick to call the Social Media Barriacade the "future of athlete connectivity," the only athletes putting eyes on a pair right now are those swinging by the Olympics' media lounge for interviews. Knowing this, we can still imagine some future shoes padding runners' egos at the finish line during the 2016 Rio games.

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Adidas Social Media Barricade shoe concept moves tweets to the track (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Aug 2012 15:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/36uJovPirq4/

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Apple offered Samsung $30 per smartphone, $40 per tablet patent license

Apple offered Samsung $30 per smartphone, $40 tablet per tablet patent license

Late Apple CEO Steve Jobs may have wanted to go all thermonuclear on Android over their alleged infringement of Apple's patents, but that doesn't mean they didn't try a pocketbook-based approach behind the scenes. If the current trial between Apple and Samsung over this very matter is any indication, there's a lot that happened behind the scenes that we didn't know about until now. Case in point: the release of a late 2010 Apple slide deck detailing a proposed licensing deal with Samsung that, if accepted, would have put this whole ordeal behind us.

The basic details of the proposed licensing agreement are that Apple wanted for $30 per smartphone and $40 per tablet from Samsung. There are some discounts available, though, with Apple knocking 20% off if Samsung were to cross-license their not-as-formidable patent portfolio back to Apple, a 20% discount for devices that have features that aren't "Apple Proprietary", and a 40% discount for smartphones that run an OS that's already licensed patents from Apple (i.e. Microsoft, not Google). In total that could bring the royalty per device down to $6, assuming it was a smartphone that runs Microsoft software and has key differentiating features from Apple's devices  (the proposal cites Samsung's BlackJack smartphone, with its Windows Mobile OS and hardware keyboard as an example). Considering that Apple's primary beef with Samsung is over Android, however, the best discount the company could manage would be down to $24 per device. The tablet licensing fee would also be reduced to $30 per device over the course of two years.

Table outlining Apple's proposed licensing terms

How that compares to other licensing deals in the mobile space, like Microsoft's dealings with HTC, Samsung, LG, Acer, and others, we're note entirely sure. It's been reported that Microsoft's licensing agreements range between $5 and $15 dollars per device, but it's never been confirmed (Samsung's been rumored to be on the high end of that scale). In fact, this is one of the few times we've been able to get the nitty-gritty details of what exactly one company was trying to ask of another for patent licensing.

As other court documents have revealed, Samsung between June 2010 and June 2012 sold 21.25 million smartphones and $1.4 million tablets, generating just over $8.1 billion in revenue. Assuming the vast majority of those were Android devices and only qualified for the 20% discount per Apple's proposal, Samsung would have been looking at licensing fees of $554 million during that time.

Half a billion is a relative drop in the bucket for Apple, with their $8.8 billion in profit - not revenue, that was $35 billion - just this past quarter. But for Samsung, $554 million is a big chunk of change for their smartphone business, while Samsung did register a profit of $5.9 billion for the last quarter, it's worth noting that Samsung also makes a wide range of consumer devices, including high-priced televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, and cameras. They do share an overlap with Apple in the smartphones, tablets, and personal computers space, but only in smartphones is Samsung's marketshare competitive with Apple's. But Samsung also produces a wide variety of smartphones, limiting the economies of scale that Apple enjoys by producing only a handful of different smartphones, and making the same model (see: iPhone 3GS) for years.

With that all in mind, we still don't know what exactly sort of profit Samsung's enjoyed off their smartphone and tablet success, but we can be all but certain their profits haven't been nearly as strong as Apple's when the company as a whole can't generate as much profit across their wide range of products. An approximately $250 million-a-year hit to Samsung's mobile electronics business would have likely been devastating to the division's bottom line, hence the lack of an agreement on Apple's proposed licensing terms.

Amusingly, Apple expected that Samsung would respond favorably to the proposed licensing terms.

Source: AllThingsD

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