Chrome Announces “Blink” Rendering Engine
Google has announced that they will be moving away from WebKit in favor of their own rendering engine—“Blink”—in future versions of Chrome, and Opera is following suit.
A Blog Apart
User Inter Faces
Finding sample avatars for interface design can be quite annoying. Use this simple tool to generate a customized swath of avatars.
Microsoft backs away from Flash ban in IE10
Microsoft loosened its Flash policy, this time enabling Flash by default on both Windows 8 and Windows RT. Instead of using a whitelist to enable Flash only where Microsoft permitted it, the company now uses a blacklist to block Flash "in the small number of sites that are still incompatible with the Windows experience for touch or that depend on other plug-ins."
The Virtues of Vertical Media Queries
Devices come in all shapes and sizes, and pivot between portrait and landscape orientation. Desktop and laptop browsers can also be contorted into all sorts of shapes. It’s time to stop ignoring short (and tall!) viewports and start using them to creative and user-pleasing effect. Anthony Colangelo shares why and how.
Hacking the A Tag in 100 Characters
In most browsers it's possible to hijack a link after a user has clicked it, making phishing attempts much harder to detect.
Ian Hickson on HTML5 DRM
"The purpose of DRM is not to prevent copyright violations. The purpose of DRM is to give content providers leverage against creators of playback devices."
Unstoppable Promises
The @supports rule recently added to the CSS Conditional Rules Module and landed in WebKit stands to be a powerful tool in a web developer’s belt, but there are some major doubts. UAs aren’t known for claiming “support” only when they truly support a feature in a fully interoperable and bug-free way. Could this potentially exciting addition to CSS be doomed from the outset?
You at the IA Summit—on Us
The IA Summit is one of the longest-running and most welcoming web conferences out there, and it’s one of our favorites for user experience professionals and information architects. This year's event takes place April 5-7 in Baltimore, Maryland. If you happen to be in the area or can travel there, we’re even giving away a free pass—just for commenting on this post.
IE6 Usage in China Seems to be Collapsing
In a market that has historically been very slow to adapt to browser technology, StatCounter shows a significant drop in IE6 usage, and a more recent (but also significant) uptick in Chrome.
The New York Times Experiments with more Structured Online Comments
On Wednesday afternoon the Times rolled out an experimental approach designed to enhance discussion by adding structured data.
