Today on The Verge: August 14th, 2012

Posted by Sam Sheffer on August 14, 2012 05:25 pm 14

Hello and welcome back to the daily roundup of all things technological, sociological, political, and cultural that passed through this website called The Verge today. Among the big news is the end of Flash on Android. How will it affect you? I rarely come across mobile sites that require flash anymore. If it happens, I can easily view the content on my Galaxy Nexus.

Sound off!

Tomorrow, Adobe will disable new installs of Flash on Android, effectively cutting it off from the future of the mobile web — despite the company's historical assertion that Flash would enable the "full web experience" on mobile devices. Instead, Adobe surrendered the major mobile battlegrounds and pledged allegiance to HTML5.

Microsoft unveils SkyDrive.com redesign, launching Android app in 'a few weeks'

There are also new "instant search" features that appear to function more like desktop-bases searches with results dynamically updating; other features include a contextual toolbar that holds the most commonly used actions, multiple select and drag and drop, and improved sorting options.

Two weeks after launch, Outlook.com obtains over 10 million users

Alongside its complete SkyDrive revamp, the company has announced that over 10 million have signed up for the service. The last number we heard was a rather impressive one million users in 24 hours.

PlayStation Mobile bringing 'bite-sized games' to Vita and PlayStation Certified devices

Sony officially announced plans for its PlayStation Mobile initiative at Gamescom today, promising bite-sized games for PlayStation Certified, Android-powered devices and PlayStation Vita this year.

Google expands Patent Search with prior art finder, European patents

Google has added in the full collection of European patents, and there's a clever new prior art finder that automatically identifies key phrases and inventor names from a patent to quickly search previous patents, the web, Google Scholar, and Google Books for similar inventions.

'SimCity' releasing on Mac in early 2013, PC beta announced

In an announcement timed with its Gamescom press conference, Electronic Arts revealed that the next installment of SimCity will now be coming to Mac in February 2013, right alongside the PC version.

EA's Origin coming to Mac, Android, Facebook, and Smart TV

It was first revealed that Origin would be coming to Mac in a press release detailing the OS X version of SimCity, stating that the game would be coming as a "digital download via Origin in February 2013."

Facebook's purchase of Instagram cleared by UK watchdog

The UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has halted its probe into Facebook's $1 billion purchase of Instagram.

PlayStation 3 finally has a native YouTube app, adds smartphone controls

It's a free download from the PlayStation Store, and while details are scarce for now, it should support HD video, suggest search results as you type them, access video subscriptions from your account, and let you use a connected smartphone as a remote control.

Canon recalls more than 68,000 Rebel T4i cameras due to skin allergy risk

The problem is caused by a chemical that can turn the rubber grips on the camera from black to white, and also has the potential to cause skin irritation — in July Canon said that the issue only affects devices manufactured between May 31st and June 15th.