Browsersphere: Tag: Mac

Extensions and Bookmark Sync Enabled in Stable Google Chrome Build

Posted on January 25th, 2010 | No Comments »

Google has unleashed extensions and their bookmark sync feature on stable builds of Google Chrome today. If you’ll remember, the bookmark sync feature was enabled in Windows beta builds back in November, and support for extensions was announced for both Windows and Linux beta builds last month. It looks like users of stable Chrome builds on Linux and Mac may need to wait a bit, still, however:

To those using Google Chrome on Linux, extensions are enabled on the beta channel. And for those using Google Chrome for Mac, hang tight — we’re working on bringing extensions, bookmark sync and more to the beta soon.

If you’re on Windows, you can either wait to be updated to the new build automatically over the course of the next week, or you can manually upgrade if you want to get your hands on the new features right away.

Once you’ve got the new build, you can head over to Google Chrome Extensions to start extending your browser. Or you can head on over to the Google Chrome Blog to find out more about what’s included in the new build.

Tags: Beta, Bookmark Sync, Chrome, Extensions, Features, Google, Google Chrome, Linux, Mac, Releases

Around the Browsersphere #15

Posted on January 7th, 2010 | 5 Comments »

We’re covering everything from the difference between Yahoo! Answers and Stack Overflow, to Firefox sabotage against IE8 add-ons, to Taco Bell marketing campaigns in this trip around the browsersphere. Are you ready?

General

This one is pretty funny, but maybe wouldn’t be as funny if it was true: someone filed a Firefox bug claiming installing Firefox disabled his or her IE8 add-ons.
WebKit received one of InfoWorld’s 2010 Technology of the Year awards for being a “tool for creating cross-platform smartphone development,” whatever that means.
Yahoo! Answers, which is one of the most useless sites on the Internet, in my opinion, runs the gamut in attempting to answer the question “which language should I use to create a web browser?“
Harry Parsonage went to great lengths to write a “forensics” paper on how privacy can be put at risk by various web browsers’ session restore feature.
If you’re planning on attending MIX10 in March, Paul Scarpa of Spry Hive Industries is hoping to talk about the past, present and future of web browsers. You’ll need to vote, though, to make that happen.

Chrome

An article at Beet.TV claims that Google Chrome has reached 40 million active users worldwide since it’s initial beta release in September of 2008.
Jim Lynch of ExtremeTech talks about why he switched from Firefox to Chrome on Mac.
Dwight Silverman is using Chrome on Mac, too, and got pretty excited when a bookmark manager showed up in his build.
If you’re a Chrome fan and an Ubuntu fan, you may like some of these Ubuntu themes for Google Chrome.
Chrome’s Dev Channel was updated to version 4.0.288.1 yesterday across all platforms. TechCrunch points out that the key features are those that showed up for the Mac platform: bookmark syncing, the new “pin tab” feature, and most importantly, extensions.
Unlike Yahoo! Answers, Stack Overflow provides a platform at which smart people can provide smart answers, such as this explanation of the difference between the browser process, the render processes and plug-ins in Chrome.

Fennec

In a blog post that announces his transition from working on Fennec back to the desktop version of Firefox, Gavin Sharp also reveals how developing for Fennec was different than developing for Firefox, and introduces us to a few of the other major contributors to the new mobile browser.

Firefox

John Lilly tweets about a theme/add-on combination that gives “glimpses of [Firefox] 4.0.”
John Slater, Mozilla’s Creative Director, vows that Firefox marketing won’t go the Taco Bell route.
Download Squad reports that Firefox 3.7 is showing some progress with its Windows 7 shell integration.
Initial tests show that forthcoming multi-processor support in Firefox leads to a 3x speedup in JavaScript performance, but even that is still 50% slower than Google Chrome’s performance using the same test.

Internet Explorer

Microsoft’s announcement that it had submitted a request to join the SVG Working Group sparked commentary from SitePoint and The Industry Standard.

Opera

As you probably heard, Opera announced a new CEO this week.
Opera is planning on releasing a browser beta for Windows CE and looking to find other niches after suffering losses of around $2 million during the last quarter.

The Minor Players

“Digia @Web is a modern, fully finger touch controllable, web browser for mobile. @Web is currently available for S60 5th Edition and Maemo mobile devices free of charge.” Techie Buzz has a review, which includes a screenshot.
SRWare Iron Browser, which was mentioned here last month, has been reviewed, along with screenshots, over at GadgetMix.
China is making some big investments in free software which could end up benefiting Maxthon.
Flock 2.5.6 was released this week, fixing some integration issues with Flickr and Twitter.
Reports from CES say that Ford has developed its own Web browser, which can be operated only while the car is parked (there’s more on the safety implications of related innovations in The New York Times today). Left Lane reports that Ford’s browser is WebKit-based.
This review of the Orca browser has plenty of screenshots for anyone who’s curious about the browser.
Honza Pokorny, who you can follow on Twitter, has created his own browser, appropriately named Honza’s Browser, which you can try out on Linux or Windows. He has also made the source code available.

Tags: Add-ons, Awards, Bookmarks, Bugs, CEO, China, Chrome, Digia @Web, Fennec, Firefox, Firefox 3.7, Firefox 4, Flickr, Flock, Ford, Gavin Sharp, Google Chrome, Harry Parsonage, Honza's Browser, IE8, Internet Explorer, JavaScript, John Lilly, John Slater, Mac, Marketing, Maxthon, Microsoft, MIX10, Multi-processor, Opera, Orca, Performance, Releases, Safety, Session Restore, SRWare Iron, Stack Overflow, Statistics, SVG Working Group, The New York Times, Themes, Twitter, Ubuntu, WebKit, Windows 7, Windows CE

A Quick Look at Fennec on Windows

Posted on December 19th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

When I mentioned this Firefox Mobile video in the last issue of Around the Browsersphere, I also mentioned that it was a little lacking in the hands-on details department. Little did I know at the time that testing out Fennec (the codename for the Firefox Mobile browser) was so simple to do.

Fennec, which is currently at version 1.0 alpha 1, or also referred to as M9 (a user experience alpha), can be installed on Windows, Linux and Mac, in addition to its intended target, the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. To do so, simply grab the zip file or distributable associated with your OS.

I installed Fennec on Windows 7 to check it out, and the simulation works pretty well. You can see how pages are rendered according to the smaller screen size, and you can also get a feel for how close the rendering of the page is to what you see in your normal desktop browser. One of the things that stood out in the aforementioned YouTube video was the fact that all of the controls are hidden off to the sides of the page. You simply “swipe” left or right to access the currently open tabs and navigation/settings, respectively.

The following is a look at Browsersphere loaded up in Fennec:

And here’s a look at ESPN.com loaded with the currently open tabs displayed off to the left:

And finally, here’s a look at the Fennec release notes page with the navigation and settings icons off to the right:

Obviously, you can’t get the best feel for what Fennec will feel like running on its intended hardware by running it on a dekstop OS, but you get a general idea for the layout of the controls, the way the pages render, etc. Overall, I got a good impression from my quick look at Fennec, and it sounds like others have been impressed as well.

If you’re as curious as I was about how Fennec compares to some of the other mobile browsers out there, I’d recommend installing it on your desktop computer and giving it a try for yourself.

Tags: Alpha, Fennec, Firefox Mobile, Linux, Mac, Mobile, Mozilla, Nokia N810 Internet Tablet, Screenshots, Videos, Windows

Twitter Watch #3

Posted on December 13th, 2009 | 2 Comments »

To borrow from Pink Floyd, is there anybody out there?

Ironically enough, Browsersphere has been neglecting the browsersphere a little like Microsoft neglected Internet Explorer earlier this decade. After all, my last post was way back in June. However, unlike Microsoft, it isn’t the competition that has jolted this site back to life. On the contrary, sites like Avencius and Twitter accounts like @AltBrowser have actually made me feel a little bit better about the whole ordeal, knowing that at least someone is out there covering the browsersphere in my absence. Truth is, the site went dark out of pure laziness on my part. Well, that and the fact that I’ve been pretty consumed by another project. Nevertheless, I’m back, and after catching up a bit on what’s been going on, my first order of business is to share a little bit about what’s been tweeted in the browsersphere lately. So let’s get to it.

Looks like @ryan45419 is working on his own web browser named iSurfWeb.
@humancell points out that Firefox and Safari accounted for 79% of all web vulnerabilities in the first half of this year.
@ByteEye appears to be working on its own web browser as well.
@erichthewebguy is happy to be seeing Firefox used more and more on TV these days.
As someone who appears to have given up on Firefox for Chrome on the Mac, @lee_cummings may have coined a new term: “nozilla.”
@UKTJPR wonders if anyone is willing to give up their web browser for a week.
@DevJonny points out SRWare Iron, a browser created with the Chromium source code that apparently doesn’t have all the privacy concerns of Chrome.
@BemusedWolf, who has come up with some colorful names for Firefox and Internet Explorer, might be interested in SRWare Iron.
@SuperDuperCam had some colorful words to share about Firefox as well.
@BrowserNews, the creator of the Dolphin3D browser, is touting it as “a better web browser.”
@mrtech points us to a blog entry about what the Firefox team is doing about crashes and startup time.
@usingpond wonders if Blackbird, which sells itself as an African American browser, is for real.
@msacks makes reference to the Lobo browser, which is all-Java and uses a rendering engine called Cobra.
@waynehastings and @deanq appear to be pleased with Chrome for Mac OS X, with the later giving a parting shot to both Firefox and Safari.
@chrispy2004 appears to be displeased, however, claiming that Chrome for Mac OS X is the slowest browser he’s used in a long time.
@GameFreak4321 doesn’t seem all that pleased either.
@JasonTselentis thanks the “Facebook browser” for finally taking away Internet Explorer’s market share.
@KileyG wonders what the threshold is for the number of open tabs before someone becomes unproductive.
@muhanov discovers and shares the fact that the Android web browser doesn’t support FTP.
@ganetsky wonders how it’s possible that no one has created a web browser named “Bowser.” Good question! Though to be fair, some people have referred to IE as the “Bowser” browser.
@Andrew_James claims to be in “web browser heaven.” I wonder if Netscape’s there.
Both @jamienguyenle and @jinkhet refer to Chrome using sexual terms.
@nicnab asserts that Firefox’s remembering of per-site zoom levels is enough to keep him hooked on said browser.
@ConduitYourSite wonders what the best Twitter lists for browsers and web-related tools are.
As I often have, @alex_crawshaw finds it ironic that you need to use a web browser in order to download an alternative one.
@propstm wonders if IE6 users even realize what they’re missing out on, using such an out-of-date web browser.
@derickthemacguy says Google Chrome looks like “a Fisher Price version of a web browser.”
@souravghosh says that Mosaic “is considered the first browser to make the Internet easily accessible to non-techies.”
@C_Hernandez_ heard that Camino is the fastest browser for Macs and apparently is going to check it out.
@omegatron laments, as do many I’m sure, the fact that his mom doesn’t know the difference between a web browser and a web page.
@Allyssen points us to a split-screen browser for the iPhone called iNetDual.
@ericylai recommends the Bolt browser, which also happens to support a split-screen mode (check out the demo), for those tired of the default Blackberry browser.
@IHtherapies finds KidZui, a web browser targeted at kids, very cool.
Even if it’s “a bit slow,” Firefox is still @flyfiddlesticks‘ favorite browser.
@abhishek tweeted about the Facebooker browser, which is currently available as a release candidate.
@juandelpozo makes reference to Infinity Web Browser, a web browser for Android.
@va3stl gave Midori a try.
@wordtree likes the idea of trying a text-based web browser like Lynx.
@tr4st recommends Lunascape, the “world’s first and only triple engine browser,” to web developers.
@sphereinabox wants to know what mobile web browsers, other than Safari, support offline storage. If geek.com is to believed, it looks like Fennec does, too.
And finally, @rodhilton loves that Ubuntu lets him use a web browser while the operating system is still installing.

That’s it for Twitter Watch #3. Believe it or not, Twitter Watch #2 was so long ago that I was still using Summize to search for tweets.

Before I end this post, since we’re on the subject of Twitter, I should mention that Browsersphere is now on Twitter as well. Just follow @Browsersphere for real-time updates, links to new site content, etc.

Tags: Android, Avencius, Blackberry, Blackbird, Bolt, Chrome, Chromium, Cobra, Dolphin3D, Facebook, Facebooker, Fennec, Firefox, Google Chrome, iNetDual, Infinity, Internet Explorer, iPhone, iSurfWeb, KidZui, Lobo, Lunascape, Lynx, Mac, Microsoft, Midori, Mosaic, Netscape, Performance, Privacy, Rendering, Rendering Engines, Safari, Split-screen, SRWare Iron, Summize, Tabs, TV, Twitter, Ubuntu, Vul, Vulnerabilities

Around the Browsersphere #12

Posted on March 7th, 2009 | No Comments »

Whoa. Has it really been like eight months since the last time we went around the browsersphere? Not good. I guess we should do something about it…

General

Lifehacker recently put the major players through some browser speed tests after some boasting by the Safari 4 folks.
In Mobile Browser Wars, Ed Hansberry takes a look at the browser alternatives available for mobile devices (via Web Browsers News and Reviews).
Ten Web Browsers that You May Have Never Heard of covers iRider, Lunascape, Ultrabrowser and Shiira, among others.

Avant Browser

Avant Browser 11.7 Build 22, which appears to be a minor release, was released back on the 26th.

Camino

Camino 2.0 Beta 2 was released back on the 27th.
If you’re interested in the Camino schedule, get updated.

Chrome

Read about improvements in the spellchecker used in Chrome.
It is believed that extension support is coming to Chrome this May (via Web Browsers News and Reviews).
See the first screenshots of Chrome running on Mac.
Full-screen browsing has come to Chrome, but apparently doesn’t live up to the way the feature is supported in Firefox and IE7.

Firefox

Daniel Glazman takes an in-depth look at monetizing Firefox extensions.
A new mascot, Foxmosa, was recently added to the Mozilla family.
Firefox Extension Guru’s Blog discusses the Firefox 3.1/3.5 release schedule and how advancements in other web browsers’ JavaScript engines have impacted the schedule.
Some interesting file uploading ideas came up at a recent Firefox design lunch.
Jesse Ruderman sheds some insight into the issues surrounding “continuous integration,” which from what I can tell involves how and when code is checked in and how build machines and tinderbox displays are impacted.
John Slater, Creative Director at Mozilla, is looking for an intern.
Take a look at the Mozilla Community Calendar.
Firefox 3.0.7 was recently released.
At first it was under consideration, and then the decision was made to version the Shiretoko release of Firefox, formally versioned as 3.1, as version 3.5.
Here’s a granular look at the type of minor performance improvements that eventually make a web browser faster overall.
Gotta love bugs that are simply titled things like “Make location bar autocomplete faster” and “Make location bar autocomplete even faster.”
There is a call “for new Web apps that can help people make a difference while browsing the Web.”
Is Firefox faster on Windows or Linux?
Firefox is dominating in Antarctica.

Flock

Apparently the Flock folks thought Flock would make a good Valentine’s Day gift? Personally, I’m glad I didn’t heed their advice for my wife’s gift this year. Though, it looks like the Flock folks weren’t the only ones with this bright idea.
“People using Flock’s Eco-Edition conducted 80% more searches per user as compared to Flock’s overall population of users.”

Internet Explorer

The Cost of Internet Explorer attempts to track all the “wasted time and effort” on the part of web developers trying to make websites compatible with IE.
IE8’s Compatibility View explained (and a recap).
IE8 Beta testers are making a difference.
It’s not every day anymore that you see browsers like Internet Explorer 4 and 5.5 mentioned.
An IE8 Reliability Update has been made available for Windows 7 users (like myself) who are using IE8 (unlike myself).
It looks like the IE team will be pretty busy at MIX09.
Check out a video that goes into detail about IE8’s new rendering engine (via Robert O’Callahan).
Here’s a comparison between the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of IE7.
Is the codename for IE9 “Triton?”
Sarah Dutkiewicz wonders why Microsoft is held to a different standard when it comes to bundling IE with its operating system, Windows.

Maxthon

Check out a chromed-out Maxthon icon.
I think MaxthonGuy and I may have reached some kind of virtual truce. That is, until the next time the madness reappears over at his blog.
Learn how to use the custom search feature in Maxthon (via Maxthon Resources).
A new version of Maxthon 2.5 was released recently.
At least one Maxthon user is frustrated that his favorite browser isn’t included in the browser reviews found in PC magazines, etc.

Opera

Avencius’ coverage of the Opera 9.64 release uncovers some details about some platform-specific code that should make Windows users’ browsing experiences more secure.
Opera unveiled Opera Turbo last month at Mobile World Congress 2009 and it was later discussed at Opera Watch.
Take a look at a speed comparison between the browsers developed for the Nintendo DS and the DSi.
Similar to my recent post about various web browser vendors claiming ‘First!’, Choose Opera touches on the topic of whether it matters who developed a feature first or not. Then, the very next day, they answered their own question.
Opera Fingertouch is “a technology designed to make interacting with the Web easier and simpler on touch-based devices.”
Apparently there is a demand out there for making Opera look like IE7 (via Daniel Glazman).
Check out the Carakan FAQ for more information on Opera’s new JavaScript engine (via Opera Watch).
Combining Opera with a touch UI.

Opera Mini

Armenia, a country with around three million people, saw its Opera Mini usage grow by 2800% last year. See this and other interesting statistics in the State of the Mobile Web report (via Choose Opera).
“Yahoo! is expected to begin distributing Opera Mini via Yahoo! Mobile and also as a standalone download from Yahoo!’s mobile Web sites in the near future.”

Orca Browser

The first build of Orca Browser 1.1, Build 1, was released back on the 25th.

Safari

Avencius’ review of Safari 4 Beta is a very positive one, and some details regarding branding of the new JavaScript engine are ironed out in the comments.

SeaMonkey

Skyfire

Skyfire 0.9 Beta was released back on the 12th.

There was a lot to cover this time around, and there’s much more I haven’t yet covered. Hopefully that means we’ll see the 13th installment of “Around the Browsersphere” sooner than November.

Tags: Add-ons, Avant, Avencius, Beta, Bugs, Camino, Carakan, Chrome, Compatibility, Compatibility View, Daniel Glazman, Design, Extensions, Features, Firefox, Flock, IE7, IE8, IE9, Internet Explorer, Internet Explorer 4, Internet Explorer 5.5, iRider, Jesse Ruderman, John Slater, Linux, Lunascape, Mac, Market Share, Mascots, Maxthon, Maxthon 2.5, MaxthonGuy, Minor Players, MIX09, Mobile, Monetizing, Mozilla, Nintendo, Opera, Opera 9.64, Opera Fingertouch, Opera Mini, Opera Turbo, Orca, Performance, Releases, Rendering Engines, Safari 4 Beta, Schedules, Screenshots, SeaMonkey, SeaMonkey 2.0, Security, Shiira, Shiretoko, Skins, Skyfire, State of the Mobile Web, Themes, Touch, Triton, Ultrabrowser, Windows 7

Digg Watch #5

Posted on December 31st, 2008 | No Comments »

Let’s take a look at what web browser news has surfaced over at Digg over the past month:

Firefox sails past 20% market share, IE drops below 70% – “Mozilla achieved an important milestone in November, sailing past 20% market share over an entire month for the first time since its release in November 2004.”
Google Chrome Browser To Support Customization – A step in Firefox’s direction.
Safari Tops 7% Of Browser Market Share, Mac OS X On The Rise – Not quite Firefox’s gain, but movement upward nonetheless.
Firefox Beats Chrome And Webkit Eats Them For Breakfast – Links to some SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark results for bleeding edge builds of Chrome, Firefox and WebKit.
Opera 10 alpha – The alpha release of Opera 10 features the Presto 2.2 rendering engine.
Second Firefox 3.1 Beta Due ‘Very Shortly’ – A reference to the since-released Firefox 3.1 Beta 2.
New trojan targets Firefox, masquerades as Greasemonkey
Opera 10 Aces Acid3 Browser Test, Boosts Performance by 30% – More on the Opera 10 alpha release.
Webkit Still The Best And Rips Opera 10 Alpha A New One – Perhaps the hidden gem in this one is the ground Chrome gained on the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark since the aforementioned link’s resulMozilla to pull the plug on Firefox 2 “soon”ts.
Mozilla to pull the plug on Firefox 2 “soon” – no complaints here.
First look: Firefox 3.1 beta 2, now with private browsing – The feature appears to be implemented very similarly to Chrome’s implementation.
Firefox Adds Multitouch Gestures for Macs
Google Chrome Comes Out of Beta
Google anticipates a bright and shiny future for Chrome – Links to an interesting ars technica article covering the challenges Chrome faces in trying to catch up with Firefox and IE.
Google’s Browser Sheds Its ‘Beta’ Label – One post just wasn’t enough.
Mozilla reverse-engineers OSX to enhance Firefox 3.1 for Mac
Google grants outsider Chrome-coding privileges – Given the requirements of becoming a Chrome “insider,” I’m not surprised to read that only one outsider has been granted permissions thus far.
Internet Explorer security alert
Exclusive: First look at Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 RC1 – RC1, “which is believed to be the first feature-complete version of the browser, will lack in compatibility with web standards and will not match the JavaScript performance of all other major browsers.”
Has Internet Explorer ever been safe?
Firefox Issues Eight Patches for Web Browser
FireTorrent Brings BitTorrent to Firefox
Google pushing users away from IE?
7 Things Google Chrome Needs – Now That It’s Out of Beta – Links to a pretty good wishlist of Chrome improvements and enhancements.
Firefox is most vulnerable Windows software in 2008 (PDF)
Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 on Linux uses less memory
Which sites will make the IE8 Compatibility Hall of Shame? – Apparently the Compatibility Mode feature of IE8 is one of its most critical.
Firefox picks up 2 out of 3 users IE loses
Mozilla releases second alpha of Fennec mobile browser – I haven’t covered Fennec here yet, but apparently it’s a descendant of Minimo.
Mozilla’s mobile browser gets closer to prime time – By the way, a Fennec Fox is “a small nocturnal fox found in the Sahara Desert of North Africa.”

And now for some bonus coverage from Slashdot:

Too Good To Ignore — 6 Alternative Browsers – Really, it ends up being five alternative browsers with the Mac and PC versions of Opera counting as two.
A Cheat Sheet To All the Browser Betas
Firefox 2.0 Update To Remove Phishing Detection
Safari and Chrome: Tied For the Worst Password Manager
Chrome Complicates Mozilla/Google Love-In

Happy New Year, everybody.

Tags: Acid3, Ars Technica, Benchmarks, Beta, BitTorrent, Chrome, Compatibility Mode, Competition, Digg, Extensions, Features, Fennec, Firefox, Firefox 2, Firefox 3.1, FireTorrent, Google, Greasemonkey, IE, IE8, Internet Explorer, JavaScript, Linux, Mac, Market Share, Minimo, Minor Players, Opera 10, OS X, Performance, Phishing, Presto, Private Browsing, Rendering Engines, Safari, Security, Slashdot, SunSpider, WebKit

Around the Browsersphere #11

Posted on July 11th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Since my last installment of Around the Browsersphere was posted back toward the beginning of May, there’s simply way too much going on to get all caught up without breaking things up a bit. Therefore, this eleventh edition will focus solely on the “minor players,” or the web browsers not named Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera or Safari.

Avant

There’ve been about four builds (builds 17-20) of Avant Browser 11.6 released in the past month.
The Download Blog recommends Avant Browser for “XP users who want a Microsoft-based engine but think that Internet Explorer 7 is a pain.”
A commenter at Lifehacker points out that Firefox 3’s new fullscreen mode is old news to Avant users.

Flock

A Mac OS X user moving away from Firefox was pleasantly surprised by and subsequently switched to Flock.
The Flock blog has announced support for a “deeply localized” version of Flock for German users.

Konqueror

Linux Hater’s Blog, which I was referred to via Ben Goodger’s blog, rips into some of the usability shortcomings in Konqueror.
Ruben Schade wonders why the evolt browser archive doesn’t include past versions of Konqueror.
An Ubuntu user is trying to figure out how to clear Konqueror’s find file history.
Tork allows you to browse anonymously in Konqueror (and other browsers?).
Someone thinks that the folks who are triaging Konqueror bugs are contributing to more bugs being fixed than opened in KDE recently.
Karpion is a Konqueror add-on that “utili[z]es the Open Phishing Database to provide the user with information and tools that help protect against phishing.”
Someone thinks IE gets something right that Konqueror doesn’t…but that’s about all said person has to say.
A site called Echoes explains how to add new web shortcuts in Konqueror.
In a review of Konqueror 3.5.9, the same site calls Konqueror “the great Swiss knife.”
Over a month ago, Konqueror got support for crash session recovery and session management.

Maxthon

A sometimes-on-the-verge-of-incomprehensible blog (case in point) suggests that Maxthon is the mathmatical equivalent of IE added to Firefox.
Maxthon’s CEO, Jeff Chen, has been quoted as saying that they are working on porting Maxthon to Linux (via Maxthon Blog).
One user thinks Maxthon may be a good browser for translators.
Another user thinks Maxthon and Firefox have different core goals.
Someone created a Maxthon logo in “cool” colors.
There’s a list of requested features from Maxthon 1.x that aren’t in Maxthon 2 in the Maxthon forum.
Here’s some information on where you can go to chat with fellow Maxthon fans/users.
Here are some interesting opinions stated as facts, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Rod Trent was counting down the days ’til he could stop using Firefox 3, but he has enjoyed using Maxthon.
This blog suggests that Maxthon is the best alternative to Internet Explorer.
Here’s a friendly discussion on the differences between Maxthon Classic and Firefox 3 and Maxthon 2 and Firefox 2.

SeaMonkey

The SeaMonkey team has started having semi-weekly status meetings.
SeaMonkey 1.1.10 was released last week.

Others

In a request for feedback on Avant, someone mentioned Deepnet Explorer, which claims to be “the world’s first browser with RSS news reader, P2P client integration and phishing alarm.”
Orca Browser, which has been covered here previously, appears to have resurfaced a week ago as a form of Avant utilizing Gecko 1.9 – the same rendering engine used in Firefox 3 – as opposed to Avant’s use of the Trident rendering engine from Internet Explorer.
Web Worker Daily points to the Off By One Browser, which has “a footprint of about a megabyte.” I think I may have mentioned it here before because I recognize the website, but it doesn’t hurt to drop its name here again.

I’m hoping to catch up on the major players soon, so stay tuned.

Tags: Add-ons, Avant, Ben Goodger, Deepnet Explorer, Extensions, Features, Firefox 2, Firefox 3, Flock, Gecko, Gecko 1.9, IE7, Internet Explorer, Konqueror, Linux, Localization, Mac, Maxthon, Maxthon 2, Minor Players, Off By One, Opinion, OS X, Phishing, Releases, SeaMonkey, Trident, Ubuntu

Flock 2.0 Beta 1 is Available

Posted on June 17th, 2008 | No Comments »

Hot on the heels of Firefox 3 potentially being released, I noticed (via Twitter again) that the Flock team has made Flock 2.0 Beta 1, which is based off of the Firefox 3 codebase, available for download. The key advancements being touted with the beta release are performance, security, the user interface, favorites management and general feature enhancements.

I’ve yet to give Flock a try myself, but this may be the time to do it. Flock 2.0 Beta 1 is available for download for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Tags: Beta, Favorites, Features, Firefox, Firefox 3, Flock, Flock 2, Linux, Mac, Performance, Security, Twitter, User Interface, Windows

Mecca

Posted on June 15th, 2008 | No Comments »

Sebastiaan de With (remember him?) pointed out via Twitter today an online teaser for a new browser called Mecca.

According to the teaser page, Mecca is meant to be a social browser for Mac OS X. Keep in mind that Flock has been getting a lot of traction lately (if Twitter traffic is any indication) and it is already available for Mac OS X.

I’m going to see what else I can find out about Mecca. It definitely looks pretty from what I can tell in the screenshot. I’m interested in finding out what it is planned to support that Flock already doesn’t.

Tags: Features, Flock, Mac, Mecca, Screenshots, Sebastiaan de With, Social, Twitter