Title: FDA Tells Food Industry to Stop Using Artificial Trans Fats
Category: Health News
Created: 6/16/2015 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 6/17/2015 12:00:00 AM
Google, Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla team up to create faster browsers
Jun18
on June 18, 2015
at 6:59 am
Engineers at Google, Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla are partnering to create WebAssembly (a.k.a wasm), a bytecode for use in the browsers of the future that promises up to 20 times faster performance.
WebAssembly is a project to create a new bytecode (a machine-readable instruction set that’s quicker for browsers to load than high-level languages) that’s more efficient for both desktop and mobile browsers to parse than the full source code of a Web page or app.
Browsers currently use JavaScript to interpret code and enable functionality on websites such as forms and dynamic content. Improvements have been made to load times via asm.js, but bytecode-based systems like .NET are faster.
Proposed as a standard that could one day be implemented in all browsers, WebAssembly could bring app-like performance to Web content and apps.
Until WebAssembly becomes more widely available, the coalition of developers plan to bridge the gap with a JS script that will convert wasm to Mozilla’s widely supported asm.js for browsers that don’t support the new format yet.
WebAssembly is still very much in its early days: neither its specifications nor its high level design have been finalized yet. However, with major browser developers behind the project, it should see the light of day soon enough.
➤ The Web is getting its bytecode: WebAssembly [Ars Technica]
Image credit: Shutterstock
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Bitcoin wallet service Coinbase announced that it’s launching Instant Exchange, which allows users to buy and sell the cryptocurrency while protecting them from its price fluctuations.
Prior to launch of this feature, purchasing Bitcoin on Coinbase would take between three and four days for US customers, as the company relied on the ACH bank transfer system to clear payments.
Instant Exchange is available for users with USD, EUR and GBP wallets. Once you’ve ordered Bitcoin through Coinbase, funds will be withdrawn from your local currency wallet immediately. Receiving Bitcoin through Instant Exchange also credits your wallet automatically.
The new feature should help more users take advantage of Coinbase’s Bitcoin exchange, which launched in January in the US and in April in the UK.
➤ Instant Exchange [Coinbase]
Read next: Coinbase brings its bitcoin Wallet and Exchange to the UK
DeviantArt, the online artist community that showcases user generated artwork and photography, has upgraded its mobile app for iOS and Android.
Major revisions target the app’s Watch Feed and Notifications features and apply an assortment of performance and organizational enhancements. The Watch Feed, which connects members with the people they watch, has been updated with an activity stream that includes deviations, journals, favorites and status updates. You can now filter your Watch Feed, choosing exactly what you want to see.
Notifications, the app’s communication center where users manage mentions, replies and messages, has also been enhanced. The app now separates group deviations in notifications. On the backend, image processing has been improved to speed up delivery and improve rendering.
Other updates have art submitted to a group rolled into a single update. You can now swipe horizontally to scroll through collections and group deviations directly from your Watch Feed. Scrolling down on a Today article will show a preview of the next article. Tapping and holding on art thumbnails let you quickly favorite, share and view similar art.
We had a few quick questions for the UX team about how and why these changes were implemented to the site and Ian Campbell, DeviantArt’s VP of UX, gave us some insights.
TNW: What will the new changes accomplish in terms of making the site more usable and accessible?
DeviantArt: The biggest change to the DeviantArt Mobile App involves the Watch feature, which we also released across the entire DeviantArt ecosystem. Our platform establishes a special social relationship with an artist that doesn’t happen anywhere else. When you Watch an artist, you receive all of the materials and artwork the artist posts, the Journals that the artist produces and you see the collections that the artist makes of other works.
With the new update, you can now select which of these categories you want to view from an artist in your Watch. You may prefer the curated collections over the artist’s own work, for example. This efficiency lets you actually interact with more artists on a more meaningful level.
We also improved the interface and function of the “tap and hold” feature that permits you tap on an image to reveal a menu with options to favorite, share or see more similar content.
Aside from audience requests, what other reasons do you have to tweak the site in this new way?
It’s our responsibility to continue to improve our website, our apps and our mobile web experiences. We owe that to the community and to the public. Design is a constantly iterative process – we’re watching the data closely and reviewing the feedback.
What new audiences, if any do you hope to attract?
The new Watch features, the easier process for building collections and the improved image quality should all make it much easier for people to appreciate the art of DeviantArt and will hopefully encourage even more artists to explore our community.
Will any processes change for contributors? If so, which ones?
In the future we plan to streamline the submission process further. We are exploring ways to have a one-click process that places your work onto DeviantArt and shares it automatically to other social network accounts.
It seems obvious that the site, which was launched in 2000 and is one of the oldest art sites on the web, has continued to grow in relevance for users. DeviantArt reports that as of today there have been 1.2 million downloads, over 5,500 new users added every day with 65,000 users using the app daily from over 200 countries.
➤ Deviant Art [iOS and Android]