Author Archive: Vygantas
Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism career back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.
Spartan For Phones UI Is Not Final
If you have been one of those people who complained about the Spartan for Phones UI changes compared to Internet Explorer Mobile then good news, during the Q&A session, Microsoft engineers have confirmed that this is indeed not a final revision.
So what exactly is wrong with the UI? Well, mostly it’s one thing: the URL bar is on top, making it pretty much impossible to use a larger phone with one hand, a pretty serious flaw if you ask us.
While it’s not exactly a news that should be cheered upon, at least it gives some hope, which is better than nothing.
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Yahoo: Our Search Market Volume Reached A 5 Year High
The keyword here is “reached” not “is at”.
If you want to learn more on how exactly did the new deal (where Yahoo! became a default search engine on Firefox) affected one of the news leaders in the US then look no further than at the recently published financial results by Yahoo!
According to the report, its search volume has reached “a five-year high” with them saying that “the partnership between Yahoo and Mozilla was key to this volume increase”.
However, while Yahoo! search volume did reach a peak, it was unable to sustain it as according to the latest market share data, last month alone the company lost 0.2 points of the US market share, down from 13% to 12.8%
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Spartan Beats Chrome In Google’s Own Playground
Shows its true potential.
Remember the days when one browser developer would create a new benchmark, which (of course) would favor their own web browser and make it appear faster? Then another developer would join and the story continues…
However, now with Project Spartan, it looks like Microsoft’s web browser has surpasses Google Chrome in none other than Octane 2.0 benchmark.
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Microsoft Adopts Google’s Bounty Strategy
Get your debuggers going.
It looks like Microsoft has finally decided to borrow one of the Google’s ideas: rewards for finding serious web browser bugs.
While the rewards program is not exactly new in the software giant campus, those who wanted to do some serious debugging for the Project Spartan will finally be rewarded the right way: up to $15,000 for a security vulnerability.
The bad news? The clock is ticking and this is not exactly a campaign for a lifetime. Instead, the Project Spartan Bug Bounty will end on June 22, 2015.
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Google Chrome For IOS Gets Spartan Like Features
And other awesome tweaks.
One of the cool things that Project Spartan has brought to the table is Cortana (Bing) integration into the URL bar, which allows users to quickly check weather and get other data without entering any web page.
Well, it looks like those using iOS devices can now achieve the very same thing, all thanks to the new Google Chrome update. We are talking about weather, stock data and event math equations.
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New Opera Mini For Android Is Here
Includes refreshed user interface.
If you are rocking a phone with Android 2.3 or higher then here’s a neat gift for you: a new and improved version of Opera Mini.
And the main selling feature for this release? A redesigned user interface with the Android like native look and feel.
What if you are using a phone with Android 2.2 or older os build? Well, the good news is that you can still grab a classic Opera Mini from here. The bad news? It will no longer be updated.
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Google Extends Windows XP Support For Chrome
It just refuses to die.
After revealing the initiative to get rid of the 90s plugins and save the web, it looks like Google just took a step backwards on another front.
Previously, the search giant has announced that they will stop supporting Windows XP on April, 2015; however, that’s no longer a case.
Instead, they have backtracked and will now continue providing updates throughout 2015. Either that or another exception will be made.
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Google Chrome 42 Stable Disables Java / Silverlight By Default
Download it now.
Ah, the era of NPAPI (Netscape Plugin API) and the joy and pain that it has brought to everyone. Now, it looks like Google has finally took a much needed step to get rid of it, which means that from now on, Java, Silverlight and other plugins from the 90s era won’t work by default as the API is off.
But wait, haven’t we heard that before? You are right, back in 2013, the search giant has revealed this very initiative as well as the full roadmap.
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Get Ready For The Project Spartan Web Summit
Tons of sessions planned.
Good news for everyone interested in the Microsoft’s upcoming web browser, Project Spartan. Thanks to the recently revealed info, it appears that the software giant will be holding a Web Summit in the Mountain’s View Building One (1065 La Avenida Mountain View, CA 94043).
Want even more good news? The registration is completely free and you are welcome to come. While a full list of session schedule was not yet revealed, we do know that there are dozens of them planned, including:
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March, 2015 Mobile Market Share: Google Chrome – Up; Safari, Android Browser, Opera Mini, Internet Explorer – Down
After reviewing the desktop numbers, let’s go ahead and switch to the desktop.
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