browser
Opera Mini 5 Beta Android App Launched
March 12, 2010
Opera Mini 5 beta became available for download on the Android Market yesterday and after a long hands on, I believe it shows a lot of promise as a mobile browser on Android.
Opera has good history on mobile devices such as their Opera Mobile 9.5 browser for Windows Mobile phones, so the first thing that struck me about Mini 5 is that it too has an extremely simple user interface (UI) that’s extremely intuitive and makes a lot of key operations in mobile browsing very easy.
At the bottom of the screen, there’s a black bar with all the navigation tools you need, and although this may take up valuable screen estate on an already small screen, it’s very functional. You have your back, forward and refresh buttons as expected, but the tabs button makes it incredibly easy to add, remove and switch between tabs – much easier than it is on Android’s stock browser.
Continue reading »Google Chrome Browser Share Grows Through February
March 4, 2010
It’s been a while, probably since Google Chrome was released to the world, but web browsers are back in the big news again all thanks to Microsoft’s EU enforced ‘ballot box’ for selecting a browser to install, and Net Applications have recently released statistics which paint a very interesting picture about the world of the internet browser.
Unfortunately the situation has been pretty similar for a while: IE have boasted over 60% of the market share for years now, with Firefox edging closer and closer to the 25% mark with the rest fighting over the remains. But that looks like it might change, and in fact Chrome was the only major browser growing in February, and that is before the Microsoft Windows Browser Ballot which promises to change much.
Before we look at why – the figures. Google is up a significant 0.39% to 5.61%, whilst Firefox fell 0.20% to 24.23% and Internet Explorer suffered the biggest hit with a fall of 0.54% to 61.58%. Opera (0.03%) and Safari (0.08%) both also fell, although seeing as both of them combined fail to make up more than even 8% of the market they are unfortunately not much more than footnotes.
Continue reading »Firefox 3.6 Update Released – New Persona Themes & Faster!
January 23, 2010
You may have seen our coverage of the Firefox 3.6 beta 1 and beta 3 late last year – since then, there have been quite a few further changes made, which lost its beta status this week as Mozilla released the finished version of Firefox 3.6 upon the world.
There’s lots of reasons to carry on using a Firefox’s great web browser, the most visually noticeable change to Firefox with the new release is the introduction of a new feature called Personas. Downloadable from getpersonas.com, you can choose from other 35,000 themes on offer that let you customise the way that Firefox looks.
When viewing Personas, you can hover over one to see how it will look in your browser, where you’ll get a preview before you choose to install it by clicking it. Downloaded themes can be managed via the Add-Ons window, where you can change and uninstall your Personas using the “Themes” tab.
Continue reading »Invisible Hand Review (Cheap Online Shopping Price Finder)
January 19, 2010
Invisible Hand is a remarkable piece of software which is lightweight and extremely efficient. It is an add-on for your web browser that works as a real time price comparison tool. As you browse products on the web, the invisible hand automatically finds you cheaper deals elsewhere. For expensive retailers, it’s a nightmare, but for us consumers it’s a dream come true. After all, everyone loves to get a cheap bargain when they’re looking to do some discount shopping online.
The software browses through 115 different retailers spanning the USA, UK and Germany. Obviously I can only comment on the UK as any others are unnecessary for me. In the UK the software browses major retailers such as Amazon, Curry’s, Dixons, HMV, Play.com, John Lewis and Misco. There are in total 46 UK retailers within the software’s capabilities.
Continue reading »Essential Software for Mac OS X
January 9, 2010
More people today are using Mac’s than ever before – OS X market share has been climbing steadily since the release of Mac OS X, but third party software is just as important as the OS it’s running on, so what do you need to put on your Mac?
Web Browsers
Every new Mac comes with Snow Leopard pre-installed, which gives you Safari 4 out of the box. If you’re on an older Mac or just don’t like Safari, there are a host of alternatives available. I have three browsers installed on my Mac, but often use Safari. If you want to customise your browser then I recommend Mozilla Firefox, my PC and Linux browser of choice. As well as offering plugins and add-ons that allow you to make the browsing experience more personal, it’s open source too. You could also try Google’s Chrome browser for OS X. It’s been unofficially available for quite some time now, but the official Google Chrome Beta was released a few weeks ago and it’s very speedy and takes up less system resources than Safari.
Continue reading »PortableApps Review (Applications For Your USB Memory Stick)
December 11, 2009
Some things in life are truly frustrating… Having to use Internet Explorer on a public PC, being without an e-mail client that has all my settings already saved – you get the idea, but what’s the solution? Actually, I think I’ve just found it, and all you need is a USB memory stick!
In case you hadn’t already guessed, I’m talking about the PortableApps platform, which is a completely free download, and allows you to install portable versions of many applications on your USB pen drive so that you can take them with you, and can use them on any PC. When downloading PortableApps, you have three packages to choose from: “Platform Only”, “Suite Light” and “Suite Standard”.
Continue reading »Opera 10 Review (Internet Browser)
December 4, 2009
For years now I have been a user of Mozilla’s Firefox browser, but after downloading the Opera mobile browser for my phone, and being somewhat pleased by the browsing experience, I decided to give the full desktop version of the Opera 10 browser a go.
The first thing that I was impressed with was the setup time. Within just a couple of minutes I had downloaded and installed the program and was browsing. A much nicer and easier install than that of say, Safari. Plus, there are no annoying requests to install additional software that you have no intention of installing.
Upon opening the browser, I was initially impressed by the interface. In my opinion, the browser boasts looks almost as fine as those of Safari. However, by gaining the looks that you don’t get with the likes of Internet Explorer and Firefox, you don’t lose any of the simplicity and usability.
Continue reading »Windows Live Essentials Review: Toolbar
November 21, 2009
Internet toolbars… I’ve never liked them, and always associate them with two words: useless and malware. So what makes Live Toolbar different? Well, apart from integration with every other Live application, not a lot. For some reason, Microsoft felt compelled to give you another search box to go along with the one you already have in the top corner of IE, which is utterly pointless and tends to get in the way a bit.
Another gripe I have is the fact that you need Internet Explorer to use the damn thing, which puts me off straight away – I much prefer Firefox or even Safari to Internet Explorer, and unfortunately for Microsoft, a toolbar isn’t going to change that!
Continue reading »Firefox 3.6 Beta 3 Released…Without Windows 7 Aero Peek?
November 19, 2009
Remember how excited I got about the beta 1 of Mozilla Firefox 3.6 the other week? Well I’ve just got the latest beta of 3.6, beta 3, and it’s missing a key feature I found in the previous beta! In case you didn’t catch the article, earlier Firefox 3.6 beta’s utilised Windows 7’s Aero Peek feature in the same way as Internet Explorer by displaying each of the tabs in previews.
I also noted that there was a bug, which displayed a spinning circle in the first preview window. This bug was also present in the second beta and apparently the recently released third, which explains its omission from the default features. Despite this, you’ll still find many under the hood upgrades as expected.
Continue reading »Mozilla Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 Preview
November 7, 2009
Remember Windows 7’s Aero Peek feature I was telling you about a few weeks ago? I loved it when I first used it, and I still love it now. The only problem, as with all new features in Operating Systems, was support for the feature in third party applications – I loved Aero Peek tabs in the super bar for Internet Explorer, but I don’t use Internet Explorer…
…Well you can imagine my excitement at the latest beta of Mozilla Firefox then, which includes support for Aero Peek in the super bar when you have multiple tabs open!
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