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.
Opera Browser Is Free
Since there is nothing much new today in the web browsers area thought I will write some stuff about Opera, so today I was checking my inbox and got one email with the following content:
Hi, I want to try Opera 9.21, but can you help me to find a crack for it?
Huh? Opera is free. I am surprised how bad people are (or not) informed. This is actually not a first time when I read something like this, so I’ll just repeat:
Opera Browser is free. It became free ages ago…
Netscape Navigator 9 Beta 2 – Impressions
Yesterday I’ve tried Netscape Navigator 9 Beta 2.
I was thinking to write much more about this web browser, but after using it for a while, it really makes not much point to do that. Why? Well… Let me begin then.
I’ve launched Netscape Navigator Beta 2 and thought that its interface is not very good as I don’t like green color, but it’s just me.
The more I used it, the more I felt it’s actually a Firefox (yes, I know that this browser is Firefox based, but that’s not the main point).
I actually see even no point to use this browser, unless you are hardly using Netscape.com. Usually when I am trying new browser I want some new features which makes that browser special and my favorite one, and Netscape Navigator is just another Firefox clone.
If you like Firefox, use Firefox, if you don’t like Firefox, you won’t like Netscape Navigator 9 too. If you are using Netscape.com very often, try it, you might actually like Netscape Navigator more than any other browser.
Not really much to say I guess.
Netscape Navigator 9 Beta 2 Released
Netscape Navigator team just released a brand new Netscape Navigator 9 version: beta 2.
According to their blog, Beta 2 fixes some bugs and ads new features.
Beta 2 addresses the following issues that appeared in Beta 1:
Added URL as a tooltip to Linkpad entries
Added “Reload” to the FAS and Tracker sidebar context menus
Closing the last tab will now close the browser window
Fixed the CFBundleSignature on the Mac DMG
Fixed bug when removing the location bar while customizing the toolbar
Various fixes to in-browser voting
Various performance fixes
I have to admit, haven’t really ever tried Netscape Navigator 9, but downloading it now.
You may also want to download it here.
What I’ve found interesting in Navigator 9? Well… Here are some interesting features:
Navigator will automatically correct common typos made in Web addresses.
Examples: .cmo => .com, htp:// => http://, netscape,com => netscape.com
Install any Firefox 2-compatible extension.
I will write about this release more, just have to use it for at least few hours first.
Firefox 3 Alpha 7 Pre. Anti Fraud Feature
It’s not a big secret, every web developer wants to have fastest and most secure web browser, which not only should have all the security issues fixed, but also it should help novice user to understand the risks and help him/her to avoid that.
Firefox 3 Alpha 7 (Pre) got one more feature which should help users to avoid fake domain names. See this picture.
It highlights domain name (well… actually makes other text light grey) so users could take a look at it and make sure it’s a correct domain name. Not really usefull, isn’t it?
That’s not all, according to Arstechnica,
FF3 Alpha 7 also incorporates a domain translator that changes an address that’s encoded in non-standard ASCII (such as a percentile-encoded address) into standard text. Again, this is a change aimed at making domain addresses easier to read by stripping out the non-standard characters a phisher might use to confuse a potential target.
There’s also an add-on for Firefox 2. Not perfect, but if you don’t want to use Firefox 3 Alpha 7 to test this one, feel free to use Locationbar2 add-on.
Web Browsers Security. Opera, Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox
After yesterdays post about new Firefox security bug I’ve decided to check out, which of the worlds most popular web browsers are most secure. Thanks to Secunia for stats.
Opera 9.x – Affected By 6 Secunia advisories
Unpatched 0% (0 of 6 Secunia advisories)
Internet Explorer 7.x – Affected By 13 Secunia advisories
Unpatched 54% (7 of 13 Secunia advisories)
Most Critical Unpatched
The most severe unpatched Secunia advisory affecting Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.x, with all vendor patches applied, is rated Moderately critical.
Safari 2.x – Affected By 6 Secunia advisories
Unpatched 67% (4 of 6 Secunia advisories)
Most Critical Unpatched
The most severe unpatched Secunia advisory affecting Safari 2.x, with all vendor patches applied, is rated Less critical.
Firefox 2.0.x – Affected By 12 Secunia advisories
Unpatched 67% (8 of 12 Secunia advisories)
Most Critical Unpatched
The most severe unpatched Secunia advisory affecting Mozilla Firefox 2.0.x, with all vendor patches applied, is rated Highly critical.
I am really confused right now, but does that makes Firefox 2.0.x most insecure web browser? And according to Secunia stats, Internet Explorer 7 is right after Opera which puts it into the 2nd place?
1. Opera 9.x – Most Secure Web Browser?
2. Internet Explorer 7.x
3. Safari 2.x
4. Firefox 2.0.x – Most Insecure Web Browser?
We Will Have Firefox 3 Alpha 7. Firefox 3 Beta Delayed
Recently Mozilla modified their Firefox 3 roadmap and announced Firefox 3 Alpha 7 instead of Firefox 3 Beta 1.
According to Mozilla, next Firefox 3 release isn’t ready to call itself a “beta”, they want to deliver a product, which is stable and much better, it doesn’t matter if it can take more time than planned. I guess that’s good, we want finished and polished releases, not just a big peace of bugs.
Firefox 3 Alpha 7 should contain anti-malware, finished offline api’s and secure wrappers. If there won’t be any delays for Firefox 3 Alpha 7, it will be released on July 31st.
Firefox 3 Milestone 8 will be available in the middle of September.
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Firefox “firefoxurl” URI Handler Registration Vulnerability
Secunia reported today about a new exploit for Firefox 2.0.0.4 (might affect previous builds as well).
A vulnerability has been discovered in Firefox, which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user’s system.
Solution:
Do not browse untrusted sites.
Disable the “Firefox URL” URI handler.
Thor Larholm noted:
There is an input validation flaw in Internet Explorer that allows you to specify arbitrary arguments to the process responsible for handling URL protocols. This is the same type of input validation vulnerability that I discovered in the Safari 3 beta.
Opera 9.22, Build 8800 Released
Today Opera’s desktop team updated us with a new Opera 9.22 build.
Unfortunately they haven’t provided much information about this weekly build, since it really came up very fast after the previous Opera 9.22 build, but you should know that it is much faster with high speed peers now + more stable.
Off-Topic: Junyor also noted, that there won’t be any Opera 9.5 build on Friday.
Download:
Windows MSI
Windows Classic
Macintosh
Unix
And as always, use it on your own risk. This is not a final version.
Flock 0.9 Beta (Social Browser)
Ever heard about it? No? Me too. It’s basically a Mozilla Firefox based browser, so not a “real” web browser, more likely like a big extension.
Click to enlarge
However, if you are using social networks a lot, this might be usefull for you then.
Feel free to read more about their current release here.
“Opera Everywhere” Contest – Win Nintendo DS Lite
We have another great contests with even greater prize. You can win Japanese version of Nintendo DS Lite (not sure if works worldwide), so if you are interested, feel free to read this article.
What you have to do?
It’s very simple, use Opera’s t-shirts, stickers, printed logos or any other goods, place them anywhere you want, take a photo, submit it and comment in this topic.
If the submitted photo should be on a photo album on my.opera, or Opera Browser group on Flickr, the photo will get a bonus point.
Submit your photo by Wednesday, July 18th 24:00 (JPT)
Winners will be announced on Friday, July 20th
Current submission photos.
Opera Everywhere.
