Browsersphere

I accidentally stumbled upon the fact that Apple released Safari 4 Beta today. According to some of the early feedback I’m seeing, along with a post from ITworld, it sounds like the beta is reminding a lot of people of Chrome. I’ve yet to download it and try it out, but I wanted to pass along the word that it’s out there, in case you want to give it a try. I’ll be posting more on the new browser release when I’m back from vacation and have some more time to form my own opinions about it.

Tags: Apple, Beta, Chrome, Releases, Reviews, Safari, Twitter

According to a post at Cocoia Blog, Latitude is dead.  Here are the details:

I was really quite fond of the concepts behind Latitude, but as all the members of the team have no free time to spend on it, we have to be frank after months of inactivity and call it quits.

Fortunately (or rather, unfortunately), it seems not all concepts shown in the mocked up screenshots of Latitude will go lost with the demise of the project. Apple has patented (yes, legally patented) a few of the ideas that we have discussed online. These patent filings appeared in late 2008 on websites like Macrumors, and as a team, we were quite surprised to see them. For us, it won’t matter, but I hope it won’t stifle innovation in the browser marketplace. I do hope to make an announcement in January that will relate to this, and I hope it will also help in a future where I hope to see more well-designed and useful browsers. So long, Latitude, we barely knew ye.

If you’ll recall, I first covered Latitude here back in March, and later interviewed the man behind the browser concept, Sebastiaan de With.  It’s a shame to see the idea come to an end.

Tags: Apple, Latitude, Minor Players, Patents, Sebastiaan de With

It’s that time again.  Since the last update, major versions of both Opera and Firefox have been released.  Only one of the two has been dominating in terms of Digg presence, though.

• Top 5 Web Browsers That Aren’t IE, Safari or Firefox – A site called OMGLists covers five web browsers that aren’t in what they consider the top three.  However, I’m not sure if I’d agree with calling a media player a web browser.
• Clarification about Firefox 3 system-killing performance – Some misunderstandings about Firefox 3 performance on Linux are addressed.
• Mozilla Firefox 3 Guinness World Record (Actual Page) – News of Mozilla’s attempt at a world record hits Digg.
• Ah, the Irony! Microsoft says Safari isn’t Safe on Windows – Discussion of a “carpet bombing” flaw in Safari.
• Safari Flaw Worse Than First Thought, Microsoft Warns – Moderate flaws in IE and Safari combine to make one critical flaw.
• Firefox to pass 20% before July? – Early speculation about Download Day’s impact on Firefox’s market share.
• Why Firefox 3 matters – Speed, memory use, phishing and malware protection and bookmark management are among the new features of Firefox 3 that make the browser “matter,” according to the target article.
• WSJ’s MOSSBERG: Mozilla Firefox 3.0 Is the Best Browser – Walt Mossberg gives a glowing review of the latest Firefox release.
• What’s new in Firefox 3? Check out this demo! – An overview of some of the new features in Firefox 3.
• Best Firefox Addon Ever?
• Beautiful glyphs – font rendering improvements in Firefox 3 – The system that renders text has been completely reworked in Firefox 3.
• Firefox 3 Download Day Pledges Hit 1 million
• Mozilla Announces Release Date for Firefox 3 — June 17th
• Opera 9.5 released
• Firefox 3 and Safari 4 in browser speed race
• Third Firefox 3 Release Candidate available for download
• A Field Guide to Firefox 3: A Full Inventory of the Goodness
• Web Browsers: Speed Testing the Latest Web Browsers – Lifehacker tests the latest major web browsers on Windows (informally) and Firefox, Safari and Opera all win in various categories.
• Don’t forget to be part of Firefox’s Download Day!
• IE8 development: Microsoft should learn from Apple, Mozilla – The article argues that due to Microsoft’s “closed” approach to developing its browser, IE will always be trailing the other major players in terms of development.
• Mozilla prepares for Firefox 3 release and plans for 3.1 – ars technica covers add-on compatability in Firefox 3 and gives a quick preview of what’s in store for Firefox 3.1, codenamed “Shiretoko.”
• 15 Browser Add Ons. No One Knows Them All!
• The History of Firefox 1.0 to 3.0 in Screenshots
• Why You Should Download Firefox 3 Right Now – Over 10,000 diggs on this one.
• Power User’s Guide to Firefox 3
• Firefox Download counter
• Forbes: Why Firefox Matters
• The cake is a lie: IE team bakes a treat for Mozilla
• Firefox 3 launch a success: 8 million downloads in 24 hours
• Mozilla Hits Its Firefox 3 Download Goal…and then some!
• Firefox 3 mentioned on the Colbert Report
• And the fastest browser is… – A quick post on CNET News relays information from Zimbra that Safari is the fastest browser with Firefox not far behind.

Tags: Add-ons, Apple, Bugs, Comparisons, Digg, Digg Watch, Download Day, Extensions, Features, Firefox, Firefox 3, Firefox 3.1, Fonts, Forbes, History, Hybrids, IE8, Internet Explorer, Linux, Lists, Market Share, Microsoft, Opera, Performance, Previews, Rendering, Reviews, Safari, Screenshots, Security, Shiretoko, Walt Mossberg