Hasta La Gadget!

This week the folks at Google are bringing on the version of Google’s Chrome web browser that MacBook Pro with Retina display users have been waiting for. This version is ready in a fully prepared downloadable and stable release for you to grab right this instant. With this release, also known as Chrome 21, you’ll find clarity in your display like you’ve never seen from Chrome before – because quite simply, it wasn’t prepared for the jump – now it certainly is.

What we’ve got here also is WebRTC support for your devices galore as well. This upgrade means you’ll be able to use webcams as well as microphones on supported pages without the support of Flash or other plugins. That’s rather helpful for those of you looking to bust yourself from that ever-present bug.

There’s now wider support for Cloud Print as well as gamepads as well, with gaming never left too far behind in a Google release such as this as you should well know. Have a peek at our Retina MacBook Pro review from just a few weeks ago at its launch to see how Chrome performed before this upgrade – if you dare. You’ll find less than fabulous results, that’s for certain.

For those of you wishing to grab this newest version of Chrome for your OS X toting machine, head over to Google’s Chrome download page and make with the downloading. This version of Chrome is only working on Mac OS X 10.5 or later and needs Intel to run as well.

This version also brings on such innovations as the Sketchbots experiment too, a lovely strange event of a web app where you use a photo of yourself to create a robot. This robot sits in the Science Museum in London and draws out our portrait in a patch of sand in real time – we’d like to see any other web browser claim to be a part of such a strange innovation. Check the timeline below for additional Chrome bits as it continues to roll on into the future!

[via Google]

Google Chrome 21 stable download for Retina MacBook Pro released is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Along with Mountain Lion, Apple has begun to roll out updates for several of its core Mac OS X apps, including Safari 6. The updated browser will be available for Lion as well as Mountain Lion, and features several new features over its predecessor, including Smart Search Field, Offline Reading List, Do Not Track, a password pane, and support for Baidu, a Chinese search engine. Some features, however, will only be available on Mountain Lion.

iCloud Tabs is one such feature. That will save whatever pages are open on your Mountain Lion device and sync them to an iOS device when you next open Safari. Tab View, meanwhile, allows you to pinch out in the browser and see a zoomed out card like view of your open pages, not unlike what you’d see on Safari for iOS. Reading List is Apple’s equivalent of Instapaper, bookmarking and saving websites to read offline.

Safari 6 also sees a unified URL bar and search field, mimicking functionality in Chrome that allows you to search or type in URLs from the same bar. Do Not Track isn’t too far off Incognito mode, setting a flag that tells websites not to track your activity or save any cookies, and the password pane allows you to manage any saved login details for websites. If you’re a fan of Apple’s browser and want the latest and greatest, hit up this link and get downloading. Those hoping for a Windows version of the browser might be out of luck, however, as Apple seems to have scrubbed it from the website.

Safari 6 now available for download is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Can’t bear to part with your favorite browser extensions, but can’t stand to see them devour your system memory? Maybe you should check out Firefox 15. According to Mozilla’s Hacks blog, the browser’s latest beta should patch up the majority of memory leaks gushing from Firefox add-ons. Also new, is the beta’s support for Opus, a free audio format partially supported by Mozilla. The firm hopes competing browsers will pick up the format as well, calling it “as good or better than basically all existing lossy codecs.” The blog makes quite a case for the format, citing tests and bitrate information, going as far as giving instructions on embedding Opus players in web pages. Check out the codec of tomorrow for yourself at the source links below.

Filed under: Internet, Software

Firefox 15 beta boasts support for Opus audio format, reduces add-on memory leaks originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Jul 2012 08:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As the beta for Firefox 15 hits the digital shelves, it’s time for the final release version of Firefox 14 to be brought to the masses with another completely free download. This web browser has been noted to be having a set of security upgrades along with a tie with Google for private web searching. Firefox 14 also implements a new system of site identification with different symbols appearing depending on what the site you’re browsing has in store for your web-browsing experience.

This update for Firefox brings a set of new icons that’ll have you quickly identifying the level of security, primarily, for each site you’re visiting. If you see a globe symbol, you’re at a site that’s not secured in the least. If you’re at a site with SSL encryption, you’ll see a padlock icon with ‘HTTPS’ scrolled across it. If you see a green lock with a name on it, on the other hand, you’ve got a site with an Extended Validation certificate. This means that the certificate authority has taken a much closer look at the provider of that site than your average site would.

Firefox 14 also brings on developer tools that includes Pointer Lock API support, Mac users will be glad to see full-screen mode for OS X Lion 10.7 and above, and again, all downloads remain free. You can download Firefox 14 in its final release version now, or you can head straight to Firefox 15 beta if you like as well – at your own risk, of course!

Also head to the timeline below to check out our recent stories on Firefox and events that have lead up to this day in time and space!

[via Mozilla]

Firefox 14 brings security updates with new browser download is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We’d say it’s about time. Although it’s almost two years late to the party, Barnes & Noble is responding to Amazon’s Kindle for the Web with Nook for Web. Much like its counterpart across the virtual aisle, the Nook web edition lets readers browse free samples and whole books entirely from a web browser while preserving the bookmarking and layout options we’ve come to know and love. Social mavens will like the options to share over Facebook and Twitter without having to leave the page, and recommendations will pop up as you shop. There’s no highlights, however, so it won’t quite replace the Nook app on your iPad just yet. Nook for Web is already ready and waiting as part of Barnes & Noble’s online store, so those who can’t be bothered with native apps can get their fix immediately.

Update: It most definitely won’t replace that Nook app for the iPad. As TechCrunch found out, the web version won’t load on iOS devices.

Continue reading Barnes & Noble brings out Nook for Web, comes full circle with e-reading (update: not on iOS)

Barnes & Noble brings out Nook for Web, comes full circle with e-reading (update: not on iOS) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Jul 2012 09:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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