A quick note for Opera fans (and we ain’t talkin’ The Marriage of Figaro here). Looks like the self-styled “world’s fastest” browser (with about 2% of the market share, last time we checked) has a new version! 10.5 for Windows features a swank new look, a new JavaScript engine, private browsing, Opera Unite (which is sure to re-invent the web any moment now) and much more. Want to take a look for yourself? Hit that source link.
This article was written on July 09, 2007 by CyberNet.
Mozilla added two nice new features in Firefox 3 nightlies that should help protect users from phishing attacks. The first feature will be familiar to those of you using the LocationBar2 extension, and it was actually added by the same person who developed the extension. The goal of this feature is to make the domain and subdomains in the URL stand out a little more. Here’s what the URL now looks like when you visit an article on our site:
As soon as you hover your mouse over the Address Bar all of the text turns to the standard black. This will hopefully make people more aware of the sites they are visiting, and I think that a feature like this should be in every browser. Although I am still a little skeptical whether emphasis should be placed on the subdomain since a lot of fake addresses look like paypal.phishingdomain.com.
This feature isn’t exactly like the LocationBar2 extension though, because it does not make the URL navigatable by clicking on different segments. It would have been cool to have this put in Firefox as well, but that is probably a bit much since they want to focus on simplicity.
The second thing that they implemented is an automatic URL-decoding technique to display a more readable address. For example, Firefox 3 will now take a URL like this:
Both of those point to the same page, but the first one is encoded a little differently. The second URL is obviously a lot more readable and understandable than the first one, which is why both Internet Explorer and Opera are already setup to "decode" all URL’s that are like the first one. This becomes important when users are subjected to phishing attacks that use complicated URL’s to try and confuse the individual. Source: The Burning Edge
On a slightly related note Opera Watch recently pointed out a shortcut for the Opera browser which navigates up a folder/directory in the current URL. You can either press Ctrl+Backspace or using a mouse gesture you can hold down the right-click button, and then drag your mouse up and to the left. Doing this would take you from here:
Microsoft is putting the finishing touches to the famed “browser choice screen” that the European Commission forced it to include as part of its antitrust investigation settlement, and today we get to see it for the first time. Users who have Internet Explorer as their default browser (meaning none of the savvy Engadget readers) will be alerted that there is “an important choice to make” and directed to the above decision making assistant. We actually think the randomized order of the top five browsers makes a ton of sense, and would express some cautious optimism that the ballot screen could really do its job of informing people of the alternatives out there. Users in the UK, Belgium and France will get to try it out next week, and a phased rollout will begin across Europe on March 1.
BlackBerry addicts won’t have to wait much longer to get a true browsing experience through their smartphones.
A new BlackBerry browser based on the Webkit layout engine is on its way and it will be extremely “network efficient,” Research In Motion co-CEO Mike Lazaridis told attendees at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona Tuesday. What RIM did not mention is that Webkit layout engine is also used by the iPhone, Android and Symbian mobile operating systems.
“It’s going to be well worth the wait,” says Lazaridis.
The emphasis on network efficiency an interesting spin by a company whose cellphone browser is one of its weakest points. Unlike the iPhone, the Motorola Droid or any other smartphone today, the BlackBerry does not display web pages just the way your PC would. Instead, Blackberry users have to contend with a stripped-down, mobile version of a web page that is decidedly 1990s in its look. In what was seen as an attempt to solve the problem, last year RIM acquired Torch Mobile, which makes the Webkit-based Iris browser.
During his keynote, Lazaridis offered a quick glimpse into what the new browser could look like on the BlackBerry.
A better browser could put RIM on a stronger footing against rivals, writes Shaw Wu, an analyst at Kaufman Bros. in a research note to his company’s clients.
“Its current web browser is arguably the weakest part of the BlackBerry experience so a new version that will close the gap between Apple’s Safari, Palm’s WebOS browser and Google’s Chrome would be welcome,” says Wu. “We can’t help but wonder how many more units RIM could sell with a quality browse.” RIM sold 10.1 million BlackBerries last quarter compared to Apple’s 8.7 million iPhones.
Lazaridis did not mention when RIM plans to release its new browser. But RIM could make it available as a public beta for its developers in April at the WES 2010 conference, says Wu.
“We believe this makes sense in helping work out kinks and bugs with such an important software release,” he says.
BlackBerrys are also better than other smartphones–for carriers that is–says Lazaridis. A BlackBerry is more efficient, consumes less bandwidth than competing smartphones and scales better than on telecom carrier networks, he says.
“Network operators can support three BlackBerry browsing sessions for every one other smart phone browsing session,” says Lazaridis.
Lazaridis’ comments were meant to highlight what some industry experts see as a possible bandwidth crisis facing the cellphone industry. Based on current data consumption patterns, operators are likely to find their available spectrum completely consumed in the next three to five years, according to analyst Peter Rysavy.
We weren’t expecting much out of RIM’s presser here at MWC this morning, but the company managed to bust out one surprise — a demo of the company’s new WebKit-based BlackBerry browser. We’re assuming this is what came out of that Torch Mobile acquisition, and the early build shown off on-screen looks pretty solid, rendering Amazon.com quickly and scoring a full 100/100 on the Acid3 test. Unfortunately, there’s no word on when BlackBerry users will actually be able to get their hands on this, but rest assured we’re digging for more info. Video after the break.
As if you needed any more evidence of the tech supremacy of your Nokia N900 or N810, here’s Firefox making its official mobile debut on the most righteous Maemo OS. Available for download right now, version 1.0 will come with a pretty sweet feature named Weave Sync, which harmonizes your bookmarks, tabs, history and passwords across devices, making for a seamless transition between your desktop computer and your mobile one. We reckon we could get used to that. Alas, Flash support is still somewhat shaky, and does not come enabled by default, though you’re free to flip the switch and ride the lightning as it were. We’re sure Mozilla will appreciate any crash reports you might want to throw its way as well. So come on already, download the darn thing and let us know if it improves on the already spectacular browsing experience of the N900.
Google’s Nexus One phone has gained kudos for its vivid OLED screen and slim design. But the lack of multitouch support for its gorgeous display has left some users frustrated.
Now there’s a hack for it. A developer has modified the Android 2.1 operating system running on the Nexus One to enable multitouch for the device. Though it enables the feature for the Nexus One browser, for now, it is likely to soon become a part of other applications, such as maps.
Earlier this month, Google launched Nexus One as the first smartphone that would be sold by the search company itself, rather than a manufacturing or carrier partner. The Nexus One is designed by HTC and is currently available on T-Mobile’s network for $180 with a two-year contract with T-Mobile. An unsubsidized version of the phone costs $530.
But the lack of multitouch on the Nexus One has left many users puzzled. Nexus One has a touchscreen but users can only tap on it with one finger. So none of the two-finger pinch-and-zoom gestures that are popular among iPhone users are available. Google has said it will consider adding the feature in future updates.
The Android community, though, isn’t holding its breath. Steve Kondik, a developer who goes under the nickname Cyanogen, has offered a few files and instructions on code to add multitouch to the device.
“You will initially lose your bookmarks and browser settings by doing this,” he warns. Hacking the phone could also void its warranty.
But as this video shows, getting multitouch in the Nexus One browser could just be worth it.
Let’s not mince words: any way you slice it, RIM’s built-in browser for BlackBerry renders sites about as well as your $199 netbook renders Avatar. The good news is that we’ve got every reason to believe the company recognizes the problem and is working to solve it — but on a completely unrelated front, they’re trying to speed up the process of fetching raw data off the interwebs, too. In a patent app made public this month, RIM’s lab geeks describe setting up a proxy server right on the phone that would intercept the browser’s web requests and bundle, compress, and send them to a gateway on the other end (BIS, we presume) that would know how to deal with the packet. Likewise, compressed data would be sent back to the proxy, which would expand and deliver standard HTTP to the browser, just as it would normally expect. The proxy component would have other tricks up its sleeve, too, like automatically downloading and caching images in an HTML stream so that they’re ready when the browser wants them. In practice, really, it’ll make no difference to the end user whether all this magic is accomplished in a proxy or the browser itself — as long as we get some thoroughly-reworked rendering capability to go along with it, of course.
Predictions about phones overtaking PCs at one task or another are hardly anything new, but research firm Gartner has gotten a bit more specific than most with its latest forecast — which, among other things, foretells of a day when cellphones will be the most common device used for browsing the web. That momentous event will supposedly happen by 2013, when Gartner expects the number of browser-equipped phones to exceed 1.83 billion, compared to 1.78 billion old fashioned computers in use. According to Gartner, however, while browser-equipped phones will outnumber PCs by then, they won’t actually be most folks’ primary browsing device until sometime in 2015. In other prognostication news, the firm also says that fully three billion of the world’s population will be able to make electronic transactions via mobile or internet technology by 2014, and that by as soon as 2012, 20% of businesses will “own no IT assets” — meaning that employees would be using their own personal computer, and that the businesses themselves would be relying on cloud-based services.
This little nugget of software is itself still in beta, but if you can’t wait for the full Milestone firmware port to climb out of alpha development, it’s a good alternate route to getting your Droid dancing in the “pinch to zoom” party. Once again produced by the good folks over at AllDroid, the patch substitutes the Droid’s default browser with the Milestone’s multitouch capable one — and from the feedback we’re seeing it does so very cleanly and painlessly, whether you’re running Android 2.0.1 or 2.1. You’ll still need to root your device first, and some background reading is advisable before jumping in, but then you should be clear for take-off into the world of multitouch browsing. Video evidence after the break.
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