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Firefox 10 now available

Posted by John Ball Categories: Internet, Software

Firefox 10

If you haven’t already realized, Firefox 10 is now available, and we definitely recommend that you upgrade. As far as the UI is concerned, the most notable change is to the “forward” button. That is that there isn’t one, at least unless you hit the “back” button first. New APIs allow for Anti-aliased WebGL graphics, full screen viewing of apps, and a few other nifty features. CSS 3D transitions are now supported as well.

Of course with all new things there are bound to be a few problems, and with Firefox 10 on OS X, Silverlight videos don't load and there are some jerky Gmail scrolling problems (as well as general trackpad scrolling issues) that Mozilla needs to get sorted out.


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How Amazon’s new Silk browser makes browsing faster

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Internet, Software

Alongside all the Kindle news this morning, Amazon also announced their own home-grown browser, Silk. Amazon Silk will be exclusive to the Kindle Fire for the time being, and it aims to speed up web browsing by a significant margin by offloading some of the heavy lifting to the Amazon EC2 cloud servers. Hit the video above to see how it all works, and why we're drooling with anticipation for Silk to hit the desktop.


Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview now available

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Internet, Microsoft, Software

Internet Explorer 10 Test Drive

Perhaps taking a page from Google and Mozilla, Microsoft surprised attendees at the Mix 11 conference Tuesday with the introduction of Internet Explorer 10 platform preview.

The release comes just four weeks after Microsoft unveiled IE9. Microsoft's Dean Hachamovitch (left) said during a keynote at Mix 11 that IE10 builds on the performance breakthroughs and native HTML5 support developed for IE9, which will lead to the adoption of HTML5 with a long-term commitment to the standards process.

IE10 Platform Preview 1 is available for download now on Microsoft's Web site.

"We built IE9 from the ground up for HTML5 and for Windows to deliver the most native HTML5 experience and the best Web experience on Windows," Hachamovitch, corporate vice president for IE, wrote in a blog post. "IE10 continues on IE9's path, directly using what Windows provides and avoiding abstractions, layers, and libraries that slow down your site and your experience."

Click to continue reading Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview now available


Mozilla Firefox switched to 18-week dev cycle; Firefox 5 coming June 21

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Internet, Software

Firefox 5No, you aren't crazy, Firefox 4 did just launch a week ago.

Mozilla is borrowing a page from Google Chrome and speeding up the development cycle for Firefox releases, setting new iterations of the browser for fixed time periods and bulldozing over features that just aren't ready to make it into a new browser release.

And if Mozilla sticks by its newly proposed plan, that means that we'll be seeing Firefox 5 on June 21—following a shortened 13-week development cycle instead of the proposed 18-week cycle for all future Firefox builds.

Within this 18-week cycle comes a new development stage that adds on to Mozilla's three previous update channels: Nightly, or builds created from the mozilla-central-repository that are highly unstable, but incorporate the latest texts and fixes; Beta, which ups the quality demands of features and tweaks added via the nightly builds; and Release, which becomes the version of Firefox that most consumers are used to using.

Mozilla's new stage, Aurora, will be a nightly update that splits the difference between the chaos of the company's Mozilla-central build (or Nightly build), and its Beta build.

Click to continue reading Mozilla Firefox switched to 18-week dev cycle; Firefox 5 coming June 21


Firefox 4 is here

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Internet, Software

Firefox 4Mozilla's popular open-source, community-developed browser has been updated to Firefox 4.0 today. Users can now download the significantly overhauled software in 75 languages from www.firefox.com. Versions are available for Windows (including the popular XP, shunned by the also-new Internet Explorer 9), Mac OS, and Linux.

The new browser version was announced on the Mozilla blog in a post lengthily titled "Mozilla Launches Firefox 4 and Delivers a Fast, Sleek and Customizable Browsing Experience to More Than 400 Million Users Worldwide."

The browser that pushed Internet Explorer to stop resting on its laurels after years of stagnation has now been pushed by Google's newer Chrome browser to do just the same. Not that Firefox had been stagnating the way that IE had been before the Mozilla browser's debut. But Chrome has served as inspiration for the new version of Firefox in more ways than one—improved speed and a simplified interface are standout examples of this.

Gary Kovacs, CEO of Mozilla, commented, "Mozilla is very proud of Firefox 4, created by our community of thousands of volunteers worldwide. It truly is the browser for tomorrow's Web. The Internet has become the most important connection mechanism in our society, which is why we've focused on making users' Web experience as fast, modern, safe and intuitive as possible."

Click to continue reading Firefox 4 is here


Firefox 4 release candidate now available

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Internet, Software

firefox 4 release candidateMozilla on Wednesday released the Firefox 4 release candidate, the final update before the company formally unveils its next-generation browser.

Those who have been testing Firefox 4 will be automatically upgraded to the RC. Mozilla said it has fixed more than 8,000 bugs since the first beta release of Firefox 4, but encouraged RC users to test this latest release as well and provide feedback.

Mozilla executives expect the final Firefox 4 to be released later this month.

Firefox 4 is a major upgrade for Mozilla. It will feature a revamped plug-in architecture called JetPack, a redesigned minimalist interface, faster JavaScript performance, and greater support for HTML5, including Google's WebM HTML5 video format.

Mozilla has streamlined the user interface, collapsing the full menu bar into a small "Firefox" drop-down option on the top left. The tabs are front and center, with the URL and search bars underneath.

Click to continue reading Firefox 4 release candidate now available


Mac App Store pins silly 17+ rating on Opera browser

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Internet, Software

Opera Mac App Store

Opera, the least popular of the full Web browsers, became the first non-native browser to be included in Apple's Mac App Store on Thursday. But as per Apple's tradition with rating browsers, it has been slapped with a 17+ rating.

To download Opera from the Mac App Store, users will be prompted to verify that he or she is at least 17 years old.

"I'm very concerned," Jan Standal, vice president of Desktop Products for Opera Software, joked in a statement. "Seventeen is very young, and I am not sure if, at that age, people are ready to use such an application. It's very fast, you know, and it has a lot of features. I think the download requirement should be at least 18."

When it comes to rating browsers, Apple treats the entire Internet as its content and thus always gives the highest rating to browsers, as apps in the App Store demonstrate.

Click to continue reading Mac App Store pins silly 17+ rating on Opera browser


Google releases opt-out extension for Chrome

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Google, Software

Google has released a new browser extension for their Chrome browser called Keep My Opt-Outs, which is a simple way to opt out of Google-based advertising tracking, along with ad tracking from other major advertising companies. The company points out that this is in part an answer to governments and groups asking for "no track" options online. It's worth noting that this is an extension that needs to be downloaded, so this won't change much for advertisers. Everything this extension does could be done manually before, and people who go out to get it may well have been blocking tracking cookies in the past. Still, this is a good step which will hopefully lead to similar tools on other browser platforms.

Read More | Google Blog

Google Chrome now has over 8,500 extensions

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Google, Internet, Software

Last week, Google put up a blog post with some statistics on their Chrome browser. Of note, the browser now has over 8,500 extensions and 1,500 themes, which have been installed over 70 million times. They also describe some of the latest updates the browser has had such as the sync feature, better HTML5 support and new APIs for developers. Google also promises that they will not be slowing down the amount of new features. On the roadmap they say new APIs will be added for things like the omnibox and pinned tabs, as well as download management and network interception. With the release of the Chrome Web Store this week, Google is clearly positioning themselves as one of the top players in the browser market.

Read More | Google Chrome Blog

Facebook wants to be your browser home page

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Social Networks

This week, you may have noticed something different the first time you went back to Facebook. The social networking site has started displaying a bar encouraging users to set the site as their default home page. By saying "See what's happening with your friends the moment you open your browser" it hopes that users will accept to put Facebook as the very first page that their browser opens. While it may not seem like a big deal going from a bookmark to your home page, sites like Yahoo! and MSN are some of the most frequented pages on the web, in large part because so many people simply left them as their default home page. This is yet another step for the biggest social network of the day to get more center stage.


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