This is an awesome post from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on the future of Artificial Intelligence, recommendations for the development of AI, and what will be required of us as humans interacting with it.

The world’s cheapest smartphone (251 Indian Rupees—less than US$4) is here. The specs:

• 4-inch screen
• dual-SIM
• 3G
• 1.3GHz quad-core processor
• 1GB of RAM
• 8GB of internal storage (supporting memory cards of up to 32GB)
• 8-megapixel rear camera with flash
• 3.2-megapixel front camera
• 1800mAh battery
• Android 5.1 (Lollipop)

The rollout is slow and units are being sold at a loss, but still. This is amazing and the program, which is subsidized by the Indian government, will bring the web to millions who have not been able to access it previously.

This is an interesting survey of form validation approaches. Interestingly it does not include native in-browser validation handling, only bespoke validation scripts.

The intro to this awesome post sets the stage perfectly:

The web has changed immensely in the past 20 years. In 1996 there were roughly a million websites; now there are more than a billion. Back then there were roughly 50 million internet users; today there are more than 3 billion. We have more content than we ever dreamed was possible. People are enjoying it on 8.1 billion connected devices, including more than 24,000 distinct mobile device types.

We need progressive enhancement and we need to look beyond our technological bubble. It’s good for us and it’s good for the Web.

I love, love, love this collection of posters covering topics like research, access needs, accessibility, and design. Download them, print them up and hang them up all over your office!

Microsoft created a Code of Conduct (based on a template from the TODO Group) for all of their open source projects. Good stuff!

The Microsoft Edge team’s Jacob Rossi on Microsoft’s continued commitment to web-based apps and the future of Progressive Web Apps.

Jeremy on aggregating links for Progressive Web Apps. Sounds a lot like bringing back the Yahoo directory :-)

Yup. And they’re even bricking phones sent to them for repair and charging customers (like me) to replace them.

Riffing on a post in ReCode and research done by Quartz, Slashdot asked its readership if apps are done. The comments are especially telling. My personal favorite is this gem:

Everything has an “app” … that is a sad rehash of their website. I don’t need access to a diluted version of your content SO BAD that I’m going to store an icon for it on my phone. Maybe if people started releasing apps that were AT LEAST as fully functional as their webpages (hopefully more) people would actually download them.

Long live the Web!