Posts tagged browser
Mozilla cries over browser ballot, full copy of TPB online, Windows 7 120-day grace & more
Aug 21st
News roundup for August 20, 2009.
- Mozilla makes much ado about nothing over browser ballot #
- Xmarks extension alpha for Chrome arrives #
- Archos soft launches own Android app store #
- Irish ISP to block The Pirate Bay #
- IT IS HERE: A Fully Functional Copy of The Pirate Bay #
- Microsoft offers cloud database previews #
- Like Vista, Windows 7 will grant 120 grace period #
- Check out my FriendFeed – uh, feed - for more tech news.
Mozilla makes much ado about nothing over browser ballot
I only recently blasted Opera for pushing its childish whims into the lap of the EU and now Mozilla – Firefox’ creator of which I didn’t expect this – also chimes in and is urging for even more strictness and regulation of Microsoft’s browser ballot screen. If you haven’t read my prior rant, I’ll reiterate: it’s preposterous that Microsoft is even buckling under the EU’s weight, let alone it even have to bolt the specifications of the ballot screen down even more (!). Mozilla spokesperson Anderson brings up issues like “Microsoft is causing inadvertent changing of the default browser in Windows and that’s not right” (which isn’t true, BTW) and other nonsense. Don’t be such a crybaby, Mozilla. Source at ArsTechnica.
Xmarks extension alpha for Chrome arrives
In response to Google’s own bookmark syncing feature for Google Chrome, Xmarks – the maker of password and bookmark syncing add-ons for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari – put out its alpha version of their add-on for Google Chrome. Source at CNET.
Archos launches own Android app store
Archos has launched its own Android application store, in response to Apple and RIM. The apps in this store, however, won’t only work with Android-enabled Archos devices, but will be available to any compatible device. Source at TechRadar.
Irish ISP to block The Pirate Bay
Eircom, an Irish ISP, agreed to cut off customers that illegally downloaded music or movies – after an out-of-court settlement with the entertainment industry. Now, Eircom will also be preventing its customers from viewing The Pirate Bay. Source at IrishTimes.
IT IS HERE: A Fully Functional Copy of The Pirate Bay
Speaking of TPB: after a torrent was put out containing the whole Pirate Bay repository, people were wondering what to do with it. Today, btarena.net has brought a nearly exact replica of the whole Pirate Bay site online, including downloads, tracking and searching. The site is also capable of hosting new torrents, although its creator insists that this must remain to be a mere backup, for now. Source at Mashable.
Microsoft offers cloud database previews
SQL Server 2008 R2 and – more importantly – SQL Azure came out for developers to preview and use with their web applications. SQL Azure is Microsoft’s hosted relational database which developers can rent for a monthly fee. Prices vary between $9.99 US for 1GB to $99.99 US for 10 GB. With SQL Azure, Microsoft provides pay-as-you-go storage and promises graceful scaling – if necessary. Source at ReadWriteWeb.
Like Vista, Windows 7 will grant 120 grace period
Windows 7’s predecessor, Vista, allowed a user to prolong his 30-day trial to 120 days by using the ‘rearm’ run command at the end each trial period. This was possible up to three times, after which you were supposed to purchase a license key to continue using Windows. As it turns out, Windows 7 – now in final form – will also support this behavior. Moreover, it has been confirmed by Microsoft as not violating the license agreement.
So basically, one can do the 120-day thing, re-install Windows and go at it again – endlessly, without ever needing to pay for Windows 7…
How To: Always Open Links in New Tabs with Safari 4 [Mac]
Mar 16th
Safari 4 Beta for Mac annoyingly doesn’t always open links in tabs, and there’s no real preference control to set this like there is in other browsers like Firefox or Opera. Apparently, this characteristic has been floating around in prior versions of the browser, too. While I like Safari’s speediness and mildly dislike the new tab placement in the beta, what bugs me the most is the issue I indicated with the title of this post.
While it is possible to make Safari [always] open links in new tabs, there is no user-friendly way to do this. To accomplish this behavior you will have to enter a line in Terminal.app:
- Quit Safari (CMD+Q)
- Open Terminal (\Applications\Utitlities\Terminal.app)
- Enter:
defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true - Close Terminal and re-open Safari
Tada! That does it indeed. While this is easy enough, Apple should have included it here:
Note: A solution to this problem in the Windows-version of Safari 4 has not yet been found.
Safari 4 Beta for Windows: Google Chrome?
Feb 25th
Apple obviously used Chromium as a base for their Safari 4:
First Screenshots: Safari 4 Beta for Mac
Feb 25th
Apple recently released the public beta of Apple Safari 4. Some of the new features include:
- Top Sites: Tab homepage similar to Google Chrome’s, only fancier
- Cover Flow: Integration of iTunes-like Cover Flow for viewing history and bookmarks
- Tabs on Top: Also taken from Google Chrome (see screenshots)
- Nitro Javascript Engine: Once more, inspired by Chrome. Safari’s JS engine would render web apps up to 30 times faster than IE7 and 4 times faster than Firefox.
Not that I’m complaining, but did Apple just take the Chromium project and tack on its own additions? I haven’t looked into this yet, but Safari 4 certainly shows a lot of similarities with Google Chrome… On to some screenshots.
Google Chrome Review, Part 1: The Good
Sep 23rd
Firefox has been a part of my browsing-life since it was still in pre-1.0 beta stages and went by the name of Phoenix. The reason clung so to this new browser (at the time) was due to the fact that I had become frustrated with the much lamented Internet Explorer Microsoft that was developed to sweep Netscape off the table. Back then, Firefox only held a modest percentage of the browsing market-share, its’ main selling point being its open-source nature and security.
Browsers, much like everything else in the computer software business, started to evolve into something much more sophisticated and complex than first envisioned. It seems to me that while Firefox 3.0 was vast improvement over its predecessor, it has lost a lot of its attractiveness, a direct consequence of its increasingly intricate nature.
IE8 Beta 1 Revealed
Mar 7th
A few ago, Microsoft released the first beta version of it’s forthcoming Internet Explorer 8. It carries the label ‘developer beta’, which implies it’s pretty rough around the edges and not really suitable for the masses. Nonetheless, every new addition to the IE line is a welcome one, since -historically-, every new version introduced new complications. So what’s in the mix for Microsoft’s latest critter in the browser-space?
Image courtesy: Paul Thurrott
If I’m honest, I’m not the most credible source to rely on, due to the simple fact that I haven’t yet taken the liberty of installing it onto my machine. I’m planning to, though. I’ll have some experiences to share some time soon.
(IE8) versus (IE7) 
It’s important to note that Microsoft overrode its initial plans for a ’standards compliant mode‘ and, instead, makes IE default to standards mode altogether. The former would’ve required developers to insert specific code, which would’ve been particularly nasty.
Paul Thurrott made all the download links available on his blog, here.
For now, I’ll just look at what other [more reliable sources] are finding. ArsTechnica put their all-seeing loupe on IE8’s first [beta] iteration and stated that it does the following things right:
- first and foremost, it passes ACID2, finally some real standards compliance!
- relevant to the prior, there’s the new CSS 2.1 Testing Center where you can test specific portions of CSS while developing webpages [for IE]
- IE’s address bar introduces (minor) additional anti-phishing measures by highlighting the current site’s domain
- ‘Emulate IE7′-button to revert to what is referred to by MS as ‘quirks mode’
On the other hand, as with every bit of software, the following features aren’t up to snuff (yet?):
- the funky ‘favorites bar’ is weird
- IE8’s interface is still a greatly displaced and needs a redesign
- still no capabilities for handling the ‘application/xhtml+xml’ MIME
- still no SVG-support
- standards mode performs slower than IE7 mode
Aside from the usual quirks and hazards, it seems to me IE is finally nudging into the right path. If they could make sure they have inline search and sexy it up a little, I’d be a glad to welcome it to my toolkit.
Let’s see where this thing goes.