Just because it’s not a smartphone doesn’t mean it’s dumb. Norway’s Opera is bringing increasingly advanced functionality to its most low-end Mini browser, with version 4.5 boasting a privacy mode and download manager. Read more »
Opera 15 is now out in beta for Windows and OS X. The new features will mostly be familiar to users of the new Android version, apart from a new read-later facility called Stash. Read more »
Safari on the iPad utterly dominates tablet web traffic. Yet the experience of the web with tablet browsers is terrible, as users get an irritatingly predictable experience. Read more »
The deal is mainly aimed at combining and enhancing the two companies’ operator offerings, with intended results ranging from new “ad-supported data” capabilities to more cell site capacity and better analytics. Read more »
Six years after Norway’s Opera put out its compression-happy Mini browser for internet-capable phones, growth continues to accelerate. This should serve as a barometer for those designing services aimed at emerging markets. Read more »
Backed by Skype co-founder Janus Friis, Futureful is a content discovery tool that’s not dissimilar to StumbleUpon, only more heavily based on semantic tagging and machine learning. It’s due to launch in the U.S. in January. Read more »
Facing a fresh investigation from EU regulators over its failure to promote a choice of browsers to Windows 7 users, Microsoft has swiftly blamed a ‘technical error’. But will that be enough to save it from a gigantic fine? Read more »
Another day, another privacy payout. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Federal Trade Commission has assessed Google with a $22.5 million fine to settle claims that it hacked users’ iPhones in order to serve ads to them. Read more »
The reasons cited by games factory Wooga when it pulled out of developing mobile browser-based games for Facebook’s platform are not going to be fixed anytime soon – and that fact should be cause for concern in the social network’s quest to conquer mobile. Read more »
Google’s Chrome browser is will appear on Apple’s iOS devices this quarter suggests Macquarie (USA) Equities Research, reducing the payments that Google makes to Apple for search results in Safari. That sounds great but Apple’s third-party browser limitations will surely minimize any benefits for Google. Read more »
Mathew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare, a hosted proxy service provider, believes Amazon will continue to face “technical, legal, and privacy concerns with Silk.” He points out that similar attempts in the past have not been very successful, even for Google. Read more »
Sleipnir, for those not versed in Norse mythology, was the eight-legged horse of the god Odin. It’s also the name of an iOS browser that has a reputation for doing things a little differently. A new Mac beta version could change your desktop browsing habits, too. Read more »
The efforts to convert corporations to the next-generation Internet addressing scheme are falling on deaf ears. According to Ovum, a mere 3 percent of web traffic is IPv6-enabled and enterprises either aren’t convinced of the need to switch, or think they already have. Read more »
RockMelt has raised $30 million in a series B funding round led by Accel Partners, Khosla Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. Although Rockmelt has already seen interest from potential acquirers, the social browser company has opted to “double down” on the opportunity to grow independently. Read more »
RockMelt is set to launch a mobile version of its browser, which integrates social media tools. RockMelt’s move into mobile this week comes just one month after the public debut of its desktop browser. Read more »
We’ve probably all had times when we’ve been so busy we didn’t have time to deal with an important email when we we read it. The danger is that it ends up being forgotten. Snooze Your Email for Gmail may be able to help. Read more »
As part of my efforts to improve my productivity, I’ve been looking for tools that can help me during research. One such tool is Trails, a Firefox add-on that can collect text snippets and images from the web, and structure them into a clean booklet layout Read more »
A new beta of social browser RockMelt has been released, including better chat and Twitter apps. Perhaps the most interesting development, however, is the new Instapaper-like “View Later” stream, which allows users to easily save web pages for later viewing. Read more »
Some time ago, we put together an official WWD add-ons collection for Firefox, gathering together our favorite add-ons at the time. With the speedy Firefox 4 being released this week, some of you may be giving it a try, so I thought I’d update the list. Read more »
In the past few days, the final versions of Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 4 have both arrived. We haven’t seen any major issues yet, but here is a short list of tests you’ll want to make when a new browser becomes available. Read more »
With so many tablets expected to debut at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show, the timing is perfect for Opera’s latest browser. Opera’s compression technology could help tablets on limited data plans do more browsing in a given month with the new Opera for Touch browser. Read more »
Making a truly good third-party browser for the iPhone or iPad is difficult because of Apple’s iOS development restrictions. You basically have to create a Safari clone, with some extras thrown in. Cyberspace is a new contender that manages to set itself apart from the crowd. Read more »
No matter what other presences you may have on the web, your own website is still a must. Professionally-designed websites should, of course, look good no matter what browser a user has. But it’s surprisingly tough to test all the ways that your site may look. Read more »
You can now get the much-hyped Skyfire browser for your iPhone, which brings the ability to watch Flash content. You won’t get that for free, though, as the price is $2.99 at launch, which is described as an “early adopter price.” So is it worth it? Read more »
Opera Software released version 10.63 of their flagship browser on Tuesday, with another round of tweaks, enhancements and bug fixes. Being a consummate Opera fan, I wasted no time checking it out Opera in both Snow Leopard and on my old G4 PowerBook running Tiger. Read more »
Does the Mac community need another Web browser? Probably not if we’re talking conventional browsers, as there’s a luxury of choices already available: Safari, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and a gaggle of others. But Fake is different, and it could just be the time-saver you’re looking for. Read more »
It’s looking like Firefox version 3.6 may well be the end of the road for Power PC holdout fans of Mozilla.org’s flagship web browser. In a posting on Tuesday, Mozilla affirmed: “the likely outcome is that we will not be supporting PPC [PowerPC] for Firefox 4.” Read more »
Kyle Dreger responded to a Lifehacker article comparing Windows browsers based on pixel-usage by making his own version with Mac browsers. What struck me was how few browsers he used: only four, and all of them were cross-platform. Read more »
There’s plenty of evidence indicating that Nokia has an Ovi-branded web browser in the works, although the company hasn’t officially confirmed the effort. What could Nokia possibly do with such an application when it already has a perfectly good WebKit browser on its phones already? Read more »
Last week saw the arrival of Firefox on the iPhone, but not as we know it. Mozilla’s new app, known as Firefox Home, is not strictly a browser — instead it brings your desktop browsing session direct to your iPhone. Read more »
App stores are so successful that some are arguing that native apps are the way we will experience the web on mobile devices. As more and more companies offer services on the mobile web, I believe the mobile browser will play a bigger role. Read more »
Apple quietly released a major upgrade to Safari, bringing the browser up to version 5.0 for both Mac and Windows. Safari 5 brings several welcome improvements, including a new “Reader” mode, improved HTML 5 support and a new extensions architecture. Read more »
Google’s Chrome browser continues to grab market share as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer continues to decline, according to the most recent surveys of browser usage. StatCounter said that in May, usage of IE 6 fell below 5 percent in the U.S. and Europe for the first time. Read more »
iCab Mobile is the browser for the iPad I’ve been waiting for. Using the same WebKit rendering engine as Mobile Safari, iCab brings a true “desktop” class browser to the iPad, including tabs and more settings than you can shake a stick at. Read more »
I couldn’t wait to try out the new Opera Mini browser for the iPhone, so I didn’t. I downloaded it via my iTunes UK account and set about running it through its paces. This is what I found. Read more »
After much debate and speculation as to whether or not Apple would accept it, Opera’s mobile browser, known as Opera Mini, is now finally available for the iPhone and can be downloaded from the App Store. Read more »
Three years ago, average page loads on ARM device could take over 20 seconds. Today that number is down to half that, if not less. But mobile apps are increasing in availability and functionality. Which is it for you on a mobile device: browser or software? Read more »
I don’t use any browser on my iPhone other than Mobile Safari. And, unless you have a jailbroken iPhone, neither do you. That’s because Apple’s webkit-powered Mobile Safari provides the browser engine for all the iPhone’s various windows onto the Interweb. So, whether you’re viewing a […] Read more »
Opera Software today announced the release of Opera 10.5, less than a month after making the beta available. The big change in this release is improved performance. Opera claims that 10.5 is the fastest browser available; a claim backed by my benchmark tests of the beta. Read more »
Historically I have always been a loyal Safari user. Sure, I’ve flirted with Firefox occasionally, but I always came back to Safari eventually. I’m afraid, however, that I’ve finally found a browser that has led me to leave Safari for good: Google Chrome. I started using […] Read more »
