Friday, 30. October 2009, 14:00:00
opera, widgets, w3c, patents
...
If you read the
report from the W3C Patent Advisory Group (PAG) regarding Apple's
patent claim against the Widgets 1.0 specification, you will not only see the reasons why the PAG does not think the patent is relevant, but it also reveals some worrying things about the way Apple handled the whole thing.
Read more...
Friday, 16. October 2009, 10:16:58
widgets, opera widgets
It is clear from some the comments about the
new Opera Widgets release that a lot of people don't understand why we are spending time on widgets, and I must admit that I didn't get it at first either. But if we move from narrowly focusing on the desktop, and instead look at the bigger picture, namely Opera's vision and where the market is heading, it might make a little more sense.
TL;DR: Opera Software is not just a desktop browser. It is a cross-platform browser. Opera's strategy needs to be seen in light of that. The market is moving towards convergence, global Internet access, and similar experiences on different devices. There is a real need for a faster, easier, less expensive way to deploy applications across devices. Widgets offer you a way to do that.Read more...
Friday, 9. October 2009, 13:04:03
opera, widgets, w3c, patents
...
Back in April, I wrote about how Apple tried to
block the W3C Widgets specification with a patent claim.
After spending a lot of W3C members' money to figure out if Apple's claims were valid, the Patent Advisory Group has now come to a conclusion: The work on Widgets 1.0 will continue. Apple's patent claim does not appear to be relevant to the Widgets 1.0 specification:
The Patent Advisory Group concluded that the inventive step claimed by US Patent Nr. 5,764,992 lies in the fact that the software program can update itself absolutely independent of functions performed by any resource external to the current software program. As the Widgets 1.0: Updates Draft uses an update-manager throughout the Specification, such self-updating does not occur.
Read the full report here:
Report of the Patent Advisory Group on the Widgets Updates Specification
Tuesday, 7. April 2009, 08:48:41
opera, patents, w3c, apple
...
There's some potentially bad news from the open standards front.
Early last month, it became clear that Apple might be
causing trouble for the W3C Widgets specification. They are unwilling to make patent
5,764,992 (
W3C information), which covers
automatic software upates, royalty-free if the Widgets Update specification is found to use anything covered by the patent. This basically means a lot of additional work for the Working Group at the W3C, and might slow down the process of finalizing the widgets specification.
So as a response to this situation the W3C has put together a
Patent Advisory Group, meaning that several companies are forced to spend a lot of time and money trying to figure out if Apple's patent claim actually applies, and if it does, what to do about it.
With the recent rumours of Apple getting all
lawsuit-happy over patents, what are they up to exactly?
For Opera's position on software patents, take a look at
Opera's vision statement.
Wednesday, 17. December 2008, 11:36:11
vodafone, opera, widgets, standards
Vodafone's
new Widget Manager runs on Opera and open standards instead of proprietary platforms like Nokia's
Widsets. The reason is simple:
[Widsets] is a Java platform, so it’s not open. Widget Manager is built on Opera, so it’s faster and easier to write for. It uses open standards.
Easier to write, shorter time to market. This basically echoes Opera's position. Using open standards makes it faster and easier to develop applications. Opera is pushing for widgets based on open standard, and Vodafone seems to agree that this is a good thing.
So now both Vodafone and T-Mobile are going for Opera's widget solution rather than competing technologies that are proprietary and more difficult and time-consuming to work with.
Wednesday, 23. May 2007, 17:26:28
opera, mini, forbes, mobile
...
Forbes has a story on
Must-Have Mobile Software, but Opera doesn't seem to be mentioned at all.
The author does mention browsers in general, though. She doesn't like them.
Mobile browsers are getting better, but can be a pain, especially if you aren't paying for an ultra speedy cellular data connection.
It doesn't sound like she has tried Opera Mini, which is surprising for a list of "Must-Have Mobile Software", seeing as Opera Mini has frequently been mentioned as a must-have by other publications. Opera Mini compresses pages before displaying them, which means that it is faster, and costs less if you don't have an unlimited data plan.
I wonder if it would be worth trying to contact the author, Rachel Rosmarin, about this. Perhaps she is simply not aware of Opera Mini or even Opera Mobile?
On the other hand, she does seem to like widgets, which will make her happy with Opera 9 for Mobile when that becomes available.
Thursday, 13. April 2006, 18:58:18
the gathering, widgets
I just returned from
The Gathering, where I spent the day at our stand and helped out a bit. It's been nearly ten years since I last visited TG, and back then I stayed for throughout the event, and of course had to pay to get in. This year, Opera was a TG sponsor, so I got in for free.
I didn't just sit around in front of a computer, though. Most of my time was spent walking around and talking to people who visited our stand. I don't know if it was Opera, widgets, or the grand prize (a
$6000 PC, including a
20" monitor) for our
widgets competition that attracted people's attention, but people did seem to be interested in what we had to say
Hopefully the widgets competition will result in a lot of cool new widgets. There are lots of talented people at TG (which is also why we're doing some recruitment activities there), so I am sure that we'll see some interesting ones.
Just remember that the competition is open to everyone else too! Maybe
you will be running off with the prize instead of one of the people at TG!
WIDGETIZE
