Sep 07

Opera promises cross-platform apps for Smart TVs, gives us little to complain about

Posted in: apps, AppStore, hdpostcross, Opera, Today's Chili

Opera has some guts going up against the likes of Samsung in the emerging realm of Smart TV apps. Then again, its new storefront brings something different to the table: namely a dashboard that strictly adheres to HTML5 and other web standards so that apps can work across any platform. Content providers like Vimeo and DriveCast have already signed up and TV manufacturers shouldn’t be far behind — not least because the underlying browser engine is claimed to run smoothly even on crappier cheaper processors. Opera has even released an emulator to make life easy for smaller app developers who, for one reason or another, can’t afford a whole testbed of TVs. Opera still has a way to go, but pleasing everyone all the time is surely a smart strategy for any underdog. PR after the break.

Continue reading Opera promises cross-platform apps for Smart TVs, gives us little to complain about

Opera promises cross-platform apps for Smart TVs, gives us little to complain about originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 06

Firefox, Safari, & Opera Hit Record-High Market Share

Posted in: Freeware, Internet Explorer, Opera, Software, statistics, Today's Chili

This article was written on June 02, 2008 by CyberNet.

may 2008 browser stats-1.pngWe’re almost halfway through the year, and it looks as though Internet Explorer is once again continuing its steady decline in usage. April’s stats were interesting because Internet Explorer appeared to have a nice boost in market share, but it was then discovered that there was a big IE marketing campaign going on that caused the stats to be skewed.

All of the mainstream browsers other than Internet Explorer saw a nice little bump in market share for May 2008. In fact, Firefox, Safari, and Opera all hit record highs according to the statistical history available at Net Applications. Those three browsers combined now control over a quarter of the browser market.

And then there is the whole “Safari on Windows” saga that continues. Safari for Windows only saw a 0.04% increase in market share over the previous month despite Apple’s valiant effort to push the browser on any user with iTunes or QuickTime installed on their PC. That brings the total market share for Safari on Windows up to 0.27%, which isn’t too shabby considering how new it is.

Alright, here’s the rundown on the top 10 browsers in terms of market share for May 2008, along with how much they changed over April:

April 2008May 2008Change
Internet Explorer74.83%73.75%-1.08%
Firefox17.76%18.41%+0.65%
Safari5.81%6.25%+0.44%
Opera0.69%0.71%+0.02%
Netscape0.56%0.62%+0.06%
Mozilla0.16%0.08%-0.08%
Opera Mini0.05%0.05%0.00%
Playstation0.04%0.03%-0.01%
Pocket IE0.03%0.02%-0.01%
Konqueror0.03%0.02%-0.01%

Congrats to Firefox for being the biggest mover of the month! Can’t wait to see what the next few months are like as Mozilla tries to attract new users with Firefox 3.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Sep 02

Visualized: an interactive timeline of the web

Posted in: Chrome, Google, Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Opera, Today's Chili, web

Ever wondered what the World Wide Web’s illustrious history would look like if plotted in timeline form? Well, thanks to Google’s “Evolution of the web,” you won’t have to. The delectable chart traces the evolution of HTML, the web technologies that came alongside it and the browsers that’ve held it all together — all in a seriously meta HTML5 package. Ready for a trip down memory lane? Hit the source, friend, and revel at how far we’ve come.

Visualized: an interactive timeline of the web originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 20:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 05

Opera CEO: 1 Billion Pageviews on Opera Mini

Posted in: Freeware, mobile, Opera, performance, Software, Today's Chili, wii

This article was written on August 20, 2007 by CyberNet.

Jon von TetzchnerThe Register had a chance to interview Opera’s founder and CEO Jon von Tetzchner last week. They discussed some of the challenges facing the company, as well as things they hope to accomplish in the future.

It was actually really interesting to read what Tetzchner’s take is on their competitors. There was a little bit of discussion on the iPhone, and a slightly larger portion dedicated to thoughts on Firefox.

Here are some of the more interesting things that I pulled from the interview:

Do you feel you’re falling behind?
We have by far the most used mobile web browser. Net Applications’ survey is showing Mini as the fifth most used browser in the world and in some countries it’s beating Safari, and others it’s beating Mozilla. The Nintendo Wii is also helping and we’re working on new version coming out.

We’re also spending time with the services, with Google and Yahoo! discussing compatibility.

Does Mini make money?
We’re not making money off Mini at this time. But we have achieved one billion page views, and so we believe we can have business models with Mini that don’t upset users. We make money through operator deals and the Yahoo! deal, for example. We’re also offering it on the server side. T-Mobile, Vodafone, Telfonica, all get specialised versions with their own front pages – and they pay us for the hosting.

How? [in regards to Opera’s efficient performance]
It’s easier to be efficient if you’re coding every piece of the code yourself. I’ve seen it myself. Someone on a core part strives to make their part really efficient; then someone on the UI side makes something simple but that makes heavy demands. It’s easy to think, "something I do doesn’t have to be that efficient", but it does. For example, in one of our builds we noticed the progress bar loading was taking up 25 per cent of the CPU.

I’m still amazed Opera has such a tiny footprint
This has been a focus for us – Opera runs on 10 year old hardware. But we noticed external code takes up time and we write our own libraries. There are libraries out there that satisfy a lot more different kinds of programmers – but when you use it your program becomes bigger and slower.

I thought that was pretty interesting how Opera Mini has had over 1 billion pageviews already. That’s pretty insane if you think about it, and if you’re wondering how they know the number of pageviews it’s because all site requests go through their servers where the pages are optimized and scaled for the best viewing possible on small screens. This even includes scaling images so that they don’t hog your bandwidth.

With Opera 9.5 Beta (hopefully) around the corner we might possibly see Opera tying all of their browsers together. For example, my bookmarks should get synced with their servers so that they are accessible where ever I am. Then when using Opera on the Wii or Opera Mini on my phone I would be able to access all of the bookmarks that I’ve already saved on my desktop. That should have been something on my list of "5 things that can make Opera better."

Source: The Register [via Opera Watch & Slashdot]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Jun 25

WrapUp: Windows Phone 7 Launch Guide, A Mac Automator Clone for Windows, and More

Posted in: Gmail, netflix, Opera, Today's Chili, windows phone 7 series, WrapUp

This article was written on October 18, 2010 by CyberNet.

Welcome to the WrapUp by CyberNet. This is a collection of news stories, downloads, and tips that we have collected over the last few days, but never got around to writing about. Don’t forget to send in your own tips, or just leave a comment on this page if you think you’ve got something we should include.

–News–

angry birds.pngAngry Birds on Android Brings GetJar Site Down
Last week the first non-beta release of Angry Birds made its way on to the Android platform. The game was released for free thanks to in-game advertising, and the sheer demand overloaded the GetJar servers which were serving up the game.


google analytics.jpgGoogle Introduces In-Page Analytics
A new feature for Analytics users makes it possible to overlay traffic statistics on your site for a better understanding of what people are clicking on.


ipad att verizon.jpgiPad Coming to AT&T and Verizon Stores
Next week on October 28th both AT&T and Verizon stores will start selling the iPad. Verizon will offer a MiFi bundle that costs the same as the 3G version of the iPad from AT&T.


netflix disc ps3.jpgPS3 Getting Disc-Free Netflix Today
Starting today PS3 owners will be able to stream 1080p videos from the Netflix on-demand service.


opera 11.jpgOpera 11 Will Have Extension Support
An upcoming alpha release of the Opera 11 software will include basic extension support, which sounds like it is similar to Google Chrome’s implementation.


back to the mac.jpgApple Holding a Mac-Focused Event This Week
On Wednesday Apple is hosting a small event on their campus to show off what appears to be Mac OS X Lion, the next iteration of their desktop OS.


sony google tv remote.jpgHands-On with Sony’s First Google TV
Gizmodo has a quick rundown on their initial impressions of the Google TV, which seems generally positive despite a little lag when switching between menus.


samsung windows phone 7.jpgEngadget’s Windows Phone 7 Launch Guide
This is a nice aggregation of information and hands-on guides for many of the Windows Phone 7 devices that will be ready at launch in November for U.S. residents.


self driving cars.jpgGoogle is Working on Self-Driving Cars
The New York Times got the scoop on one of Google’s latest projects that involves a modified Toyota Prius that is capable of driving itself.


goog 411.jpgGoogle Shutting Down GOOG-411
On November 12th Google will be discontinuing their free 411 voice-powered directory assistance service.


–Tips, Tutorials, and Reviews–

wga xp.jpgHow to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage from Windows XP
If you’re not thrilled about WGA on your Windows XP PC you can follow these steps to have it completely removed from the machine.


joliprint.jpgSave Google Reader Articles to PDF Using Joliprint
Using the Joliprint bookmarklet you can get one-click access to a nicely formatted PDF version of any article you want to save.


gmail unsubscribe.jpgSearch for Emails in Gmail that Work with Auto-Unsubscribe
Gmail has an auto-unsubscribe feature that a lot of people forget about since not every newsletter or email you get is supported. Using this search query, however, you can find all of the emails in your account that do support it.


superoneclick.jpgSuperOneClick Roots Most Android Phones
SuperOneClick is a fancy Windows app that lets you root all but 7 different Android phones in a single click.


windows automator.jpgA Mac Automator Clone for Windows Users
 This free app pushes to fill the automation needs of Windows users through a simple drag-and-drop interface similar to the Automator on the Mac.


backup oem activation.jpgInstalling an OEM Version of Windows 7 without Bloatware
With Winstallinator you can backup your OEM activation in Windows 7, install a fresh copy of the OS from a different source (even a trial), and then restore the OEM activation.


grooveshark portable.jpgPortable Version of Grooveshark Desktop App for Windows
This lightweight portable version of Grooveshark isn’t any different than using the website (although the ads are removed), but some people prefer to have a dedicated app for their music playing needs.


tv on ios.jpgConvert Windows 7 MC Recordings to an iOS Compatible Format
Converting a TV recording from Windows 7 Media Center to an MP4 isn’t exactly a one-click process, but it is doable.


–Downloads–

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Jun 22

Sign-up to Test the New Opera Mini Beta

Posted in: Freeware, Opera, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on May 10, 2007 by CyberNet.

Opera Mini DimensionThe next major upgrade to Opera Mini, code-named “Dimension,” is on the verge to being released to testers. Daniel from Opera Watch says that you have to be invited to be part of the Beta program and that you can be put on the list by providing your name and email address here.

He wasn’t able to say anything about what to expect in the new version of Opera Mini, but he did hint at a new way of navigating websites. Just to taunt us he had this to say about it:

I’ve been testing it for some time already, and have been truly impressed. Seeing what the tiny browser can do on my phone has blown me away.

In the Opera forum there is currently 16–pages of things people have been wanting to see in Opera Mini. I’ve been trying to think about what could be added to make navigating sites easier on phones. The first thing that popped into my head was voice navigation so that you can just say the name of a link to click on it. Then you could also command the browser to do things like opening a bookmark or scrolling down on the page. The Opera Desktop browser already has similar voice commands built-in, and something like this could make using the Opera Mini browser a lot easier.

That’s just my speculation, and I’m not sure how easy it would be to implement such a system on a mobile device. Most mobile devices have the microphone built-in, but the size of the application would probably be quite large if it included some sort of voice navigation.

So after you get done signing up for the Beta, feel free to leave a comment with your best guess as to what the new Opera Mini will have in store for us.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Jun 22

Helpful Tip: Add More Speed Dials in Opera 9.5

Posted in: Features, Newly Released, Opera, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on June 13, 2008 by CyberNet.

opera speed dial.jpg
(Click to Enlarge)

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I never thought Opera was going to make this possible, but I’m pleased to say that in the new Opera 9.5 you can actually customize how many Speed Dial entries are shown at any one given time! They are so incredibly useful that I’ve found myself needing more than the nine that comes standard in the browser. I will say that the Opera team could have made it easier for users to customize how many Speed Dial entries are shown at a time, but I’m just grateful that in Opera 9.5 this can now be changed. Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Note the path to the Opera Preferences (type about:opera into the address bar to find it). Also, make sure you have at least one site added to Speed Dial already.
  2. Close Opera. This is important to prevent Opera from modifying the configuration file we’re about to edit.
  3. Open speeddial.ini file in any text editor from the Opera Preferences directory that you found Step 1.
  4. Add the following lines (somewhere near the top is fine), and adjust number of rows & columns to meet your needs. I’ve got the speeddial.ini file open in the background in the screenshot above, and you can see that I set the number of rows and columns to 5.
    [Size]
    Rows=5
    Columns=5
  5. Start Opera.

You’ll need to play around with the number of rows and columns until you find something that fits your screen well. In my example I added five rows and five columns, but you’ll notice that some of the rows don’t show up. Opera requires a minimum size for each of the Speed Dial entries, and if they don’t all fit they will simply run off the screen. Once that happens there’s no way to access them since scrollbars aren’t shown.

Options like these would probably be better served in the opera:config advanced options area, but hey, I won’t complain. Speed Dial is Opera’s most useful feature for me, and having more of them makes it even better.

One thing that you should note is that Opera Link will keep your Speed Dials synchronized across multiple computers, but it will only do work for the first nine entries you have. So don’t expect to all 50 of your Speed Dial entries to appear on all of your computers running Opera. Sorry, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. ;)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Jun 22

Google working on video chat for Chrome, Skype cowers in fear

Posted in: apps, Gmail, Google, Mozilla, open source, opensource, Opera, os, skype, Today's Chili
Watch out Skype, Google Chrome is comin’ for ya. Not long after releasing WebRTC audio and video chat software as open-source, Google has started to integrate these capabilities into its prized browser. Looking to move past the played out features of Gmail and Google Voice, the company is planning for WebRTC to be a frontrunner for video conferencing and online chatting. The software was introduced as royalty-free, too, even promising to work with other browsers devs (namely Mozilla and Opera) to flesh out the project. This means that anyone building a site can make use of the new tech, and in theory, construct their own personal Skype battering ram. With the company being pro-web apps on all fronts, this is another step forward in its quest to bring the aforementioned technology up to par with native apps. Is this one of many dominoes to fall in the web-based app takeover, at least in terms of Chrome OS? It very well could be, especially if companies would rather see the traffic in-browser vs. within a native app. Now, if only Instagram could make use of that dusty webcam…

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Google working on video chat for Chrome, Skype cowers in fear originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Jun 2011 04:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 11

Opera Reveals New Speed Dial Feature…I like it!

Posted in: Freeware, Opera, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on March 02, 2007 by CyberNet.

I’m not sure how I missed it, but on Wednesday Opera revealed a new “speed dial” feature that is currently available in their latest weekly release (thanks to XPGeek in our forum for pointing this out!). It’s actually been two-weeks since Opera announced that they were going to offer a unique feature in the next release, but they didn’t want to say what it was. After reading about the Speed Dial feature I felt like I had to give it a try because it sounded really nice.

Opera Speed Dial

The whole point of Opera Speed Dial is to make visiting your favorite 9 websites as easy as possible. Instead of opening a blank tab Opera will always show your Speed Dial sites along with corresponding thumbnails (pictured above). That way you can always see what is going on with your favorite sites.

Once you startup the latest weekly build of the browser you need to create a new tab to adjust your Speed Dial sites. Then you can click on any of the blank numbers and select a website from the list of your most frequently visited, or if it’s not listed you can manually enter in a URL. If that still isn’t easy enough for you then maybe you’ll want to drag an open tab onto a Speed Dial slot, which also happens to work.

After you get all of the slots filled that you want to, there are some things you should know that can help you out. First, you can remove any of the thumbnails by right-clicking on them and selecting “Delete” or by pressing the “X” in the upper-right corner. The next thing that you’ll probably find useful is refreshing the thumbnails, and you can refresh all of them by pressing Ctrl+R when viewing the Speed Dial page (you’ll see all of the pages as they load which is super cool). A specific Speed Dial site can be reloaded by right-clicking on the thumbnail and selecting the “Refresh” option.

Opera Speed Dial isn’t just about the thumbnails though, just like a phone you can instantly access your phone numbers thanks to the speed dial feature. To do this in Opera you can press Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+9 to open the corresponding site. I really like having keyboard shortcuts for my favorite sites.

One last thing that I wanted to mention about the new feature is that the search box located above your Speed Dial sites is used the same way as the search box located in the browser. It does not search the content of the sites that are in your Speed Dial list, but is there merely because the most common thing people do when creating a new tab is perform a search. Since Opera has teamed up with Yahoo! on this feature the search box is set to their search service by default, but it can always be changed in the search settings:

Opera Search

While I’m really impressed with this feature, I think the Opera team can take it one step further. They should let users right-click on a folder of bookmarks and have all of those bookmarks shown as thumbnails in a tab similar to Speed Dial. I would also like to see a feature implemented where Opera actually monitors the content of specified Speed Dial sites to notify you when a site has been updated, and then highlighting that thumbnail in the Speed Dial site. Those are the two ideas that initially popped into my head that would make it even more useful for me, but I’m sure most people will like the feature just the way it is.

Don’t be surprised if a Firefox extension emerges that does the same kind of thing. ;)

Download the latest weekly release of Opera

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Jun 08

Free Secunia PSI: Monitor for Software Updates

Posted in: Freeware, Internet Explorer, Opera, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on July 27, 2007 by CyberNet.

SecuniaWe’ve talked about Secunia’s online software inspector before. It doesn’t require that you download any application, and it operates completely through your browser. The purpose of using it is to find out-dated software on your computer. You may not see much of a threat in running an older version of an application, but your computer can be left vulnerable to attacks when it comes to things like web browsers or instant messengers.

A report by Secunia back in May stated that 28% of the applications being used are out-dated. With more than 33% of users running an old version of QuickTime, Secunia said "all it takes is one unpatched Quicktime vulnerability and a provocative video title to compromise a lot of visitors."

A new tool by Secunia called the Personal Software Inspector (PSI) hopes to make it easier for Windows users to know when there are new versions of their applications available. PSI is currently in a Beta state, but it is a free downloadable application that a user installs instead of being web-based like before. It examines the files on your computer (mostly EXE, DLL, and OCX files), and collects version information from them to be sent to Secunia’s File Signatures engine to make a comparison.

The great thing about this tool is that it sits in your System Tray constantly monitoring for more insecure software installations. If one is found it will give you the instructions needed so that you can upgrade to the latest version.

It’s important to know that this does not check for malicious software or whether your computer has already been compromised…it is just checking to see if you’re running the latest version of more than 4,200 applications.

Here are the benefits of using Secunia PSI:

  • The Secunia PSI will be available free of charge
  • Calculates your unique Secunia System Score
  • Automatically scans your computer
  • Enables you to update Insecure/End-of-Life software
  • Provides Direct Download Links to security updates & patches
  • Detects and advises on more than 4,200 applications
  • Direct correlation between thousands of Secunia Advisories and your specific system and software
  • Secure SSL encrypted connection to Secunia

I decided to try this out for myself on a computer I knew was running an out-dated version of Firefox (it’s my server which I don’t use for anything other than backups). I wanted to see what it would do, and what upgrade option it would offer me. It actually found that Internet Explorer 7 was out-dated as well as the version of the .NET Framework I was running. Firefox was the only one that offered a direct download link (clicking on it pulled up my default browser and initiated the download immediately), but the .NET Framework offered a link where I could receive more information:

Secunia PSI

Overall, I’m really impressed with this application and I think it has earned its place on all of my computers. It’s nice that Secunia is developing such an extensive application that is capable of monitoring more than 4,000 different programs for updates. I believe that it is the first of its kind to do this on such a large scale, and hopefully people will begin using it.

Download Secunia Personal Software Inspector
Thanks for the tip ’s’!

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