The cards are on the table. The cat is out of the bag. The twist ending has, well, twisted. Google is finally getting into the PC operating system market … for real. And not just with some Android port on steroids. Chrome OS will be something new, a platform that stands apart from, and in some cases competes with, the company’s nascent mobile device OS.

My take? It has an ice cube’s chance in Hell of succeeding. [Read more...]

Looking to focus on the budding — and game-changing — HTML 5 specification, the W3C said Thursday it plans to increase available resources for the effort by discontinuing further development of XHTML 2.

XHTML been an XML-based version of HTML and has been the subject of several W3C efforts ranging from XHTML 1.0 to XHTML Modularization and XHTML 2. The 2 version of the XHTML language was to offer capabilities for mobile systems and internationalization.

The XHTML 2 Working Group charter, scheduled to expire at the end of 2009, will not be renewed. By discontinuing the XHTML 2 working group and increasing resources in the HTML 5 Working Group, W3C hopes to accelerate progress of HTML 5 and clarify the organization’s position regarding the future HTML. [Read more...]