Posts tagged with browser

Google Chrome OS, What's New?

Posted on November 19, 2009 1:26 PM

Google has provided more details about its upcoming Google Chrome OS. If you missed the boat, Chrome OS is a stripped-down Linux that should boot quickly and launch a browser (Chrome). From there, everything that you do is web-based. In short, it's a fancy way of launching a browser, but there's more...

Distribution and hardware: You and I can't download Chrome and install it, apparently (technically, you can still get the source and compile it - it's open). Users will have to buy a Chrome OS machine. I suppose that Google *has to* do that because their currently don't have a driver SDK, and therefore can't let 3rd party hardware vendors write drivers. This would mean that most devices would share fairly similar specifications. The competition should make them cheap to buy, but not much cheaper than today's Netbooks, which are as cheap as can be. Chrome will run on Intel and ARM processors.

Opera Mobile 10 beta for Symbian S60 handsets

Posted on November 3, 2009 10:29 AM

Opera has just announced that they will make Mobile 10 beta for Symbian S60 handsets available, where it will work perfectly fine on Symbian S60 3rd and 5th editions, which means your cellphone doesn't need to have a touchscreen display to get started. Touted to have double the speed of older versions for Symbian, you will also benefit from desktop-like features including Speed Dial and tabbed browsing. [Press Release]

Users not upgrading to Firefox 3 wholeheartedly

Posted on August 27, 2009 9:41 AM

Despite Firefox 3 being out for quite some time already, there are still a vast number of folks who are running on Firefox 2 despite its inferiorities for one simple reason - the darker side of the Internet, porn. That's the main excuse belted out by folks who have not yet made the upgrade since they are pretty worried about the Awesomebar on Firefox 3 that takes over the address bar, offering you the additional option of looking into browsing history and bookmarks. After all, you might land yourself in some pretty embarassing situations unwittingly after making the upgrade. Which category do you fall into, anyways? No need to answer that question - it is just something to tickle your brain.

WebGL aims at providing in-browser hardware-accelerated 3D without plug-ins

Posted on August 4, 2009 12:39 PM

[SIGGRAPH 2009] The Khronos Group has just announced WebGL, an initiative that will bring GPU-accelerated 3D graphics into web browsers, without requiring a plug-in. Today, many developers opt for an ActiveX plug-in under Windows, or something equivalent on other platform. With WebGL, they will have a direct access to 3D accelerators from JavaScript. WebGL builds on the infrastructure laid out in HTML5, which some say could be a Flash Killer as well.

I wonder if developers will find JavaScript to be "too open" and might worry about the fact that their data and code might/could be seen by others (obfuscation should be possible?). It's really fun to code 3D engines, but the thought of doing in JavaScript doesn't really cheer me up. However, having the option of doing so is great, so let's hope that this will get some traction. The big names are on board: Google, Mozilla, Opera (where’s Microsoft?). Khronos oversees the development of OpenGL and of others open technologies.

Firefox reaches 1 billion mark

Posted on August 3, 2009 7:31 AM

Who would've thought that the Firefox open-source browser would actually be a major player these days after its launch in 2004, having reached more than a billion downloads over the last 5 years. This 1 billion figure includes users downloading multiple copies for different computers in addition to manual downloads for upgrading purposes, although automatic updates are not counted. Firefox more or less holds 31% of the market share, second only to Microsoft's Internet Explorer who is seeing their 60% grip loosening by the day. Other browsers - Opera, Chrome and Safari have a lot of work to do if they were to catch up. Too bad this is a zero sum game, so a winner would mean someone else relinquishing his crown at the top.

Opera Unite: Your Web Browser is Now a Web Server Too

Posted on June 16, 2009 1:10 AM

Opera's goal is to enable users to share content, on every device, to every device. Opera Unite is a web server integrated in your web browser. By doing so, Opera allows its users to share files (an Opera account is required).

Opera has demonstrated how to share media files like photos (it takes a few clicks). Again, that's file sharing. The next demo is about sharing notes. Your friends finds your shared items via your Opera ID, that's why it is required. The next demo streams music over the web. You can make your music private or public (beware of the legal ramifications).

Opera Browser Beats iPhone Safari In Popularity Contest

Posted on June 3, 2009 9:36 AM

It is that time of bragging once again, and this time round the combination of Opera Mobile and Opera Mini proved too much to handle for iPhone’s Safari browser, as Opera's browsers took 24.6% of the total number of Web pages downloaded last month on handsets compared to the 22.3% that Apple’s Safari mustered. Depending on how you look at it, some might argue that iPhone's Safari still comes out tops as Opera has the advantage of its software being distributed through a wide variety of carriers and handsets, while the Safari remains an exclusive software on both the iPhone and iPhone 3G. Nokia takes third place with 17.9% of the market, while the rest...well, the lack of a podium finish doesn't deserve space in the news, eh? :P

Skyfire 1.0 Has Launched

Posted on May 27, 2009 6:00 AM

The Skyfire team has been working on polishing its web browser before the 1.0 milestone that just launched now. From the version 0.9, Skyfire has improved the user interface (the zoom+scroll in particular), search and even power consumption. Windows Mobile (5+6) and Symbian users can download the version 1.0 at get.skyfitre.com today. Blackberry users will have to wait as the Blackberry version is still in closed beta.

If you are not familiar with Skyfire, it is a mobile browser where web pages are pulled by a desktop PC in a central server location. The PC runs flash, silverlight and other heavy plug-in, then compresses the image and sends it to your phone. It is like a "remote desktop" in some ways. Check our previous article or go to Skyfire's website.

Related: Skyfire offers VGA support

The Google Chrome Update Is Fast!

Posted on May 21, 2009 3:33 PM

Google Just released a an update for its web browser (version 2.0.172.28), Chrome, that improves the speed by 30% they claim. We tried it and we can say that it is really fast. I have 8 plug-ins in Firefox, so that's not a fair comparison, but it blows IE7 out of the water by 300% in our tests and is perceptibly twice as fast as Firefox 3.0.1. Google has improved the JavaScript engine, and is using a more recent version of WebKit, the base code for the browser. They also removed 300 bugs…

Test it for yourself, but the difference is perceptible. I'll keep it around, but I love my Firefox plug-in too much to abandon it quite yet. But I warn Mozilla not to become complacent. Video in the full post.

Update: Chrome's load time is almost instant (<1second), which is much faster than Firefox or IE.

Cool Google Chrome Commercial

Posted on May 11, 2009 11:16 AM

Google has a new video ad campaign for its Chrome web browser that looks pretty cool. It's not meant to teach you what Chrome is, but in essence people should get away with the idea that Chrome is simpler, "less messy" and fun. Most importantly, Google hopes that the audience will simply check it out and try it. Best for Arkanoid fans