As a MacBook Pro Retina user, I can attest that Google's Chromebook Pixel rivals the quality of Apple's Retina display. But the Chromebook falls short in not allowing you to sacrifice some quality in favor of seeing more on your display.
Based on the tech specs floating out there, you might be forgiven in thinking that both the MacBook Retina and the Chromebook Pixel have similar screens. After all, Apple talks about the 13-inch Retina having "spectacular" 2,560x1,600 resolution, while Google cites the Chromebook Pixel having a 2,560x1,700 screen.
Display resolution versus pixel resolution
Those figures both refer to pixel resolution, a stat that until last year generally didn't differ from display resolution. The difference is important, and I continue to be annoyed that neither Apple nor Google make it easy to understand what display resolutions their screens show.
The difference between the two can be summarized like this:

• Display Resolution: How much can you see on a screen
• Pixel Resolution: How clear or sharp the image is that you see

Display resolution: how much you can see
My column from last year, "Forget Retina, look how much the new MacBook Pro displays," explains this difference in more depth. But as they say, a picture is worth a 1,000 words, so here's a key illustration from that previous column showing what display resolution is all about:
What those three images represent are three (of the five) different display resolutions that the MacBook Pro Retina 15-inch laptop can show on its screen. At the top is the highest display resolution that can be selected, 1,920x1,200. At this resolution, you can put two browser windows side-by-side and see most everything in both of them.
In the middle is the resolution I typically run, 1,680x1,050. You can't see as much as in the resolution mentioned above, but the text isn't as small as at the highest display resolution, so I find it easier to read.
At the bottom is the default resolution, 1,440x900. At this resolution, you see even less information. But that might be fine for those who want the best clarity from the screen, which leads to pixel resolution.
Pixel resolution: how well you can see
Consider this picture, also from my article last year:
On the left is how text appeared in a browser (at the time, Chrome) that couldn't make use of extra pixels that the Retina display allowed. On the right, how the text looked in a browser that could use the extra pixels (Safari). The image on the right is clearer, sharper.
This is happening because the Retina screen is actually using four small pixels (at its default setting) to draw each single visible point on the screen. Consider it like this:
On the left is how computer screens have typically worked. Each visible point of light -- each dot -- was made up of one pixel. If you had a 1440x900 resolution screen, that meant there were 1,296,000 pixels in all, one for each point of light on the screen
On the right is how Retina-style screens work. Each visible point of light is actually made up of several pixels, which means that text can be rendered more smoothly, or images can be shown in higher quality.
The 15-inch MacBook Pro Retina, by default, has a 1,440x900 display resolution. It shows an image made of 1,296,000 discrete points. However, it renders that image with a pixel resolution of 2,880x1,800 -- 5,184,000 pixels. That's four pixels for each visible point of light.
Scaling the display on the MacBook Pro
With the MacBook Pro Retina, you can adjust your display resolution, using the display control panel:
If you go higher than the default "Best" setting, you'll see more on your screen, but the quality will drop. Still, the quality always remains better than a non-Retina screen, because you're still using more pixels per dot than on an ordinary display.
(A few programs, by the way, will use the highest 2,880x1,800 display resolution, but the Mac user can't select this using the display control panel. The programs themselves will generally make that shift).
No scaling on the Chromebook Pixel
Want to sacrifice some image quality on a Chromebook Pixel to gain more display workspace? Sorry, no can do. Incredibly, there's no option for changing the display resolution on the machine, as with the Mac. You're stuck with a 1,280x850 display resolution, a stat you won't discover on the Chromebook site itself.
To be fair, Apple doesn't list the display resolution of its 13-inch MacBook Pro Retina either. That's 1,280x800, putting the 13-inch Retina with just slightly less display space than the 13-in Chromebook Pixel. But as with the 15-inch MacBook Pro Retina, the 13-incher offers scaling, allowing the display to go up to 1,440x900 or 1,680x1,050.
For many, a 1,280x800ish display resolution on either machine may be fine. For some, the inability to go to a higher display resolution on the Chromebook may be a non-issue. But if you do want more workspace, the Chromebook currently can't deliver.
Given how expensive the machine is, at $1,300 to start, this feels like a big oversight to me. Indeed, three other Chromebooks listed at Google's Chromebook site offer a higher display resolution of 1,366x768 yet cost around $1,000 less than the Chromebook Pixel.
Is it worth the premium for screen quality?
I paid a premium for the MacBook Pro Retina in part because the better screen quality really was worth it, given the amount of time I spend staring at my computer screen. Even scaling to increase my display workspace, I still had better screen quality than on a traditional display.
I suppose for someone who really loves using Chromebooks, the incredibly high premium the Chromebook Pixel costs might be worth it. The image quality really is great. But existing Chromebook users are likely going to take a step down in display resolution. Heck, it's a step down in display resolution from either the 11-inch or 13-inch MacBook Air or from a Windows 8 touchscreen ultrabook like the Lenovo Yoga.
If display resolution means much to you, think long and hard about making that Chromebook Pixel purchase. Otherwise, be prepared to zoom out (Ctrl-), which remains the best workaround at the moment for the lack of a true scaling option.

As Internet Explorer 10 reaches Windows 7, Microsoft readies a massive auto-update campaign for the browser's previous version.

(Credit: Microsoft) Internet Explorer 10 debuted on Windows 8, and until now was only available to people who bought into Microsoft's big Windows redo. That changes today, as Redmond rolls out IE 10 for Windows 7 (download).
The update brings enormous changes to the browser, and mostly for the better. Internet Explorer 10 is not only faster and more stable than the current IE for Windows 7, version 9, it's also far more standards-compliant.
"Gone are the days when developers aspire to build for the lowest common denominator. The way the Web becomes like an application is when you take advantage of the latest hardware. We've stopped the era of trying to maximize for aggregate browser share," Ryan Gavin, general manager for Internet Explorer at Microsoft, said in a phone conversation with CNET last week.
Basically, what Gavin is saying is that hardware advances have made much of the modern Web possible, but he also acknowledged the role of Web developers. "One of the things that we hear from developers is that the depth and support across IE 10 means less time testing and more time developing," he said.
So, Windows 7 gets the new IE10 Chakra and JavaScript engines; the Touch API innovations that help drive the browser on Windows 8; the security measures built into IE10 -- at least, the ones that are not dependent on Windows 8; location bar autocomplete; and an on-by-default Do Not Track header.
The standards that IE 10 adheres to are nothing to sneeze at. Microsoft claims that its labs have found the new version of the browser to be 20 percent faster on Windows 7 than IE 9, and it supports a veritable alphabet soup of HTML5 and CSS3 improvements -- 60 percent more standards-compliant than IE 9, says Microsoft. These include CSS Text Shadow; CSS 3D Transforms; CSS3 Transitions and Animations; CSS3 Gradient; SVG Filter Effects; HTML5 Forms; input controls; validation; Web sockets; HTML5 Sandboxing; Web workers; HTML5 App Cache; File Reader API; and HTML5 Drag-drop, among other backend improvements.
In short, modern HTML5 sites that run smoothly in IE 10 on Windows 8, or the latest browsers from Chrome and Firefox, will now work properly in IE 10 on Windows 7.
IE 10 for Windows 7 also comes with support for Pointer Events, which may seem strange to some. Pointer Events allow developers to write Web sites and register elements on the Web page to be responsive to multiple simultaneous interactions -- to respond to touch. Even though there are very few Windows 7 computers that shipped with touch screens, Gavin said that this was an important improvement to ship in the Windows 7 version of IE 10. "It's more about getting the developer to not having to do anything special to support the mouse on Windows 7 devices," he said.
Gavin and Rob Mauceri, Internet Explorer's group program manager who was also on the phone, both agreed that touch interaction would drive browser innovation for some time. "Four or five months ago, nobody was talking about touching the web," said Mauceri. "But now you've got new devices like the Pixel where others are following our lead."
Gavin was optimistic about the workplace adoption of IE 10 on Windows 7. "We're in a really good spot with enterprises, where we've been able to offer the latest version of our browser in a relatively short time frame," he said.
However, that's unlikely to be as cut-and-dried as Microsoft would like, even with Microsoft's best-in-class enterprise management tools. Browser adoption momentum indicates that businesses will continue gravitating away from IE, since IE 10 is only available on Windows 7 and Windows 8. The highest version of Internet Explorer that will work on Windows Vista is IE 9, while Windows XP users won't be able to graduate past IE 8.
One thing businesses won't have to worry about is whether Internet Explorer will adopt the six-week, rapid-release cycle of Chrome and Firefox. "We put less emphasis on release schedule and more emphasis on innovation. [Our] release schedule is a by-product of when that innovation is ready to go to market," said Mauceri.
There's little doubt that Internet Explorer 10 is the first version of IE in some time to ship with a fighting chance of being compared favorably to its competition. Being on Windows 7 is a massive boon to IE 10, but its inability to work on older operating systems that its competitors can comfortably perform on will hamstring it until those systems have significantly lower market share.

Dennis Woodside, Google's former head of ad sales in the Americas and overseer of the Google-Motorola merger, is close to replacing Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha, says Bloomberg.


Google is getting ready to replace with Dennis Woodside, Google's former head of ad sales in the Americas and overseer of the Google-Motorola merger, according to a report.

Woodside would run the Motorola unit of Google once the deal closes, Bloomberg reported, citing several unnamed sources. Woodside was on a short list that included Motorola Senior Vice President Christy Wyatt and Chief Strategy Officer John Bucher, Bloomberg reported.


Woodside became president of the Americas region for ad sales in 2009, when Tim Armstrong left to head AOL. In overseeing the Motorola merger, Woodside has reported to Google CEO Larry Page and CFO Patrick Pichette.

Bloomberg said neither Google nor Motorola would comment on the report. In a statement sent to CNET, Motorola would say only that "Sanjay is fully engaged, focused on running the business and getting the deal closed."

The Justice Department gave the greenlight to Google's $12.5 billion buyout of Motorola on February 13. The European Union OK'ed the deal on the same day. The main reason Google is buying Motorola is to get access to the company's big patent portfolio. And the Justice Department concluded in its investigations that it was unlikely that Google would use these patents to "raise rivals' costs or foreclose competition."

 

 

Luminate launches an app store to enable Web publishers to create interactive images that can link to news, movie trailers, music clips, and other live content by mousing over an image.


Luminate Image Apps let web publishers add functions to static images

(Credit: Screen shot by Larry Magid)Luminate announced Thursday the launch of a "Image App Store" where Web publishers can obtain free apps to add to their sites that can turn static images into interactive ones. The idea is to allow users to mouse over a portion of an image to take some type of action such as accessing a news story related to the image, viewing a Twitter feed, looking up something about the image in Wikipedia, or perhaps purchasing something shown in the image such as jewelry worn by a celebrity or a model It's even possible to Tweet the image or a portion of the image.

 

"We think it's unfortunate that today images are just these static rectangles you're supposed to stare at," said Luminate CEO Bob Lisbonne (scroll down to listen to the interview). "We want to make it so that one mouse over lets you access a whole range of information and functionality about what you're looking at."

The Image App Store allows publishers to discover and try out image apps before installing them. New Apps being introduced with the store include: Causes (to donate or volunteer), Editorial Search (to discover information related to the image), Entertainment News, Movie Trailers, Music Clips, Netflix movies and trailers, Soccer Stats, Twitter Feed and Wikipedia--all based on content within images.

New funding
The company also announced that it raised $10.7 million of series C funding from a consortium, led by Nokia Growth Partners, that also includes Google Ventures and Shasta Ventures./CNET/Albsofts