ReadWriteWeb

In a statement on behalf of the Obama administration this morning, a trio of senior officials including the nation's Chief Technology Officer made clear that any anti-piracy legislation passing the President's desk would not create risks of censorship, nor would it condone any alterations to the Internet's domain name system that could invite security dangers.

The statement, which lists all three anti-piracy bills currently under discussion - the PROTECT-IP and OPEN bills in the Senate, and the SOPA bill in the House - is a loud warning shot indicating the President's lack of support, and likely veto, of any legislation that requires tampering with the structure of the Internet to enable enforcement.

Several of the largest Interent firms - including Google, Facebook and Twitter - are backing alternate legislation being proposed to the Stop Online Piracy and Protect IP Acts.

The OPEN act sponsored by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., would allow the International Trade Commission to order online ad networks and payment processors to sever ties withe foreign websites that are targeted by patent infringement claims.

SOPA, and its Senate counerpart, PIPA, on the other hand, would force search engines and websites to block links to sites that are listed as being "dedicated" to copyright infringement. SOPA has been widely endorsed by traditional media companies, but Web firms and free speech advocates have likened it to government-enforced censorship.

Apple iOS devices run Web applications two-and-a-half times more slowly when they're launched from the home screen than when they're run from within the mobile Safari browser. According to numerous tests by the technology blog The Register, when Web apps are saved to the home screen and launched this way, they aren't able to take advantage of Safari's recently updated Nitro JavaScript engine nor do they get to utilize some Web caching systems.

The poor performance of these Web apps could simply be a bug introduced in the most recent iOS. Or it could be an intentional move by Apple to make it more difficult for those who'd like to bypass its App Store and offer Web rather than native apps.

The long-awaited iPad/iPhone jailbreak has finally arrived, allowing anyone with an iPhone, iPod Touch or even the brand-new Apple iPad running the newest versions of the iPhone Operating System the ability to unlock their device and install unapproved, third-party applications.

Unlike Google's Android Market, the app store for Google-powered phones, Apple's iTunes App Store is tightly controlled with only "approved" applications allowed access. But for jailbreakers, the term used to describe those who hack their devices, hundreds more applications are immediately available, allowing you greater control and freedom over the hardware you own.

We were surprised to find a long missive penned by Apple's CEO Steve Jobs posted to the Web this morning. The subject? Why Apple hates Adobe Flash. Ever since the Cupertino-based company opted to reject the plugin-based technology on the iPhone and its Wi-Fi-only companion, the iPod Touch, people have questioned and debated not just the decision itself, but the reasoning behind it. Was Flash buggy? Was is a matter of it being a proprietary product? Did it use too much CPU? The answer, as explained by Jobs in rich detail, is all of the above.

Here at ReadWriteWeb, we've discussed the use of third party APIs when building an integrated online product, highlighting the disadvantages such a decision could entail. One topic on the flip side of that is the question of whether providing an open public API versus a closed private one is in your product's best interest. Massively viral services like Twitter have rapidly expanded their capabilities and brand awareness by releasing an open API for third party developers to build on, but for companies in fledgeling industries, like mobile augmented reality, the API decision isn't as clear.

The Internet Archive has just unveiled their ambitious project called BookServer, which will allow users to find, buy, or borrow digital books from sources all across the web. The system, built on an open architecture and using open book formats, promises that the books housed there will work on any device whether that's a laptop, PC, smartphone, game console, or one of the myriad of e-Readers like Amazon's Kindle.

The project's lofty goal is to essentially create an open web of books where anyone can publish their books and make their content available via search.

At this week's DEMO 09 conference Asurion Mobile introduced their new open mobile address book called simply "Asurion Mobile AddressBook." Although the name may not be all that flashy, the app itself is. With this mobile address book, you can add social elements to your contact list including Flickr photos, Facebook pages, and Twitter feeds. This may remind you of the upcoming Palm Pre's address book which will deliver similar functionality with its Facebook integration, however Asurion's solution does even more. And thanks to the app's open framework, it's not limited to the social add-ons it ships with - developers can extend it any way they like.

In recent days, an application designed for Google's mobile operating system "Android" was accused of wiping data from user's phones. It's not known whether or not the rumors are true, but once again questions are being raised about the safety and security of Google's open platform versus more controlled and regulated platforms like that of Apple's iPhone. For supporters of the iPhone, a story about a rogue Android application proves their point that Apple's oversight and review process is necessary for keeping consumers safe.