Android Loads Web Pages 52% Faster Than Android…Kinda
A study done by Canadian company Blaze Software found that Android smoked iPhone when it comes to loading web pages. Comprised of 45,000 tests, Blaze called it the “largest ever research study of smart phone browser performance.” The problem is that the results are completely bogus. As many are aware, Apple made significant speed improvements to Safari in iOS 4.3, but these improvements do not apply to UIWebView, iPhone’s Safari-based embedded browser. Since they didn’t actually test the iPhone’s browser, the results of the study don’t hold much value. Blaze admits they made an assumption and say they “would be more than willing to create a new report” if Apple applies their optimizations to the embedded browser. After this glaring error, I doubt anyone will be looking to Blaze Software for any further testing.
Bing Bashed for Quake Tweet
In another textbook social media error by a major brand, Bing has apologized for a tweet posted about the Japan quake. Their apology reads:
“We apologize the tweet was negatively perceived. Intent was to provide an easy way for people to help Japan. We have donated $100K.”
In their original tweet, it appeared the company was attempting to leverage the disaster in Japan for their own selfish and promotional purposes. The original tweet offered up a $1 donation to Japan for every retweet:
“How you can #SupportJapan – http://binged.it/fEh7iT. For every retweet, @bing will give $1 to Japan quake victims, up to $100K.”
The original tweet is a standard method of promotion on Twitter. You offer user’s an incentive for retweeting your message. It includes a popular hashtag, Bing’s Twitter user name, and a link to Microsoft’s Coporate Citizenship page which covers the disaster and provides ways to donate. The problem here is that asking for retweets and promoting your brand on the back of a tragedy is in extremely poor taste.
Twitter Turns on Developers
It looks like Twitter has decided to bite the hands that fed them. The Twitter ecosystem, made up of thousands of apps across all platforms and devices, has been a major factor in the micro-blogging service’s rise to power.
Now, realizing how much of that power lies with the developers instead of with the company, Twitter appears to be attempting to remedy the situation by bulldozing their developer community. It’s a logical business move, but it remains to be seen if the backlash will be worth it.
Google Circles Not Announced at SXSW
The web was on fire with rumors that Google would be launching a social networking platform called Circles at SXSW. They came mostly from a post by ReadWriteWeb, which talked about the launch and some of the features to expect. Of course, no such announcement happened. According to TechCrunch, social is just too big a factor for Google to announce via a splashy press event. While Google Circles may be a reality, we probably won’t see a big announcement for it. Google will work in the background to add features to their existing properties which will serve to tie everything together.
Make Twitter More Secure with HTTPS
Twitter has added a new feature that will make your experience slightly more secure. You’ve been able to use Twitter over a secure connection for some time now by simply going to https://twitter.com instead of just using “http.” Now, Twitter has added an “Always Use HTTPS” option so that you no longer have to think about it. This is especially important when using an unsecured WiFi connection. HTTPS will now automatically be used, regardless of your settings, when you’re logging into Twitter and when using the iPad and iPhone mobile apps. You can find the new feature in your settings.
via Twitter
IE9 Does 2.3 Million Downloads in First 24 hrs
The Windows Team blog reports that IE 9 was downloaded 2.35 million times in the first 24 hrs. Released on Monday night, the Microsoft browser was doing 27 downloads every second, or over 240 downloads every 9 seconds. Pretty big numbers for Microsoft, especially when compared with the 1 million downloads of IE9 Beta.
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