Firefox 3.6 Reaches 100 Million Downloads
Back in January, the final version of Firefox 3.6 was released. Now, few months later, Mozilla reports that web browser has already been downloaded more than 100 000 000 times.
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Safari 4.0.5 Released
One more update was released for Apple Safari users, as company announced the availability of Safari 4.0.5 web browser, for Windows and Mac operating systems.
This is a recommended update, as it offers performance, security and stability improvements, such as:
– Performance improvements for Top Sites
– Stability improvements for 3rd-party plug-ins
– Stability improvements for websites with online forms and Scalable Vector Graphics
– Fixes an issue that prevented Safari from changing settings on some Linksys routers
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Opera Mini 5 Beta for Android
Today Opera Software has released the very first beta of Opera Mini 5 web browser for Android platform.
Just like all the latest Opera Mobile/Mini versions, it is packed with fresh user interface that includes speed dial. Some of the other great features are: password manager and data synch (Opera Link).
You may download it via Opera.com as well as Android market.
Thanks to Daniel Hendrycks for news tip.
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Microsoft Tweaks Browser Ballot Screen
As ballot screen was pushed at the beginning of March, various users started noticing anomalies behind random browser order.
For some reason, it would favor Google Chrome, increasing its chances to be first, second or third in the list.
As a result, Microsoft has tweaked random order algorithm, which solved this issue. Unfortunately, no more details were provided.
“We can confirm that we made a change to the random icon order algorithm in the browser choice screen for Europe. We are confident the algorithm change will be an improvement. As always, we are grateful for the feedback we get from developers, and we thank those who commented on the topic and suggested changes,” said Microsoft’s Kevin Kutz.
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Opera 10.50, Rushed, Unstable and Fast
Just before Opera 10.50 Final release, BetaNews has published an article called “Is Opera 10.5 ready for the March 1 ‘choice screen?’” which provides some great points (thanks to nobody for link).
Well, why not give it a try? After using Opera for about a week (~12 hours/day), I come up to the following conclusion: it was rushed, yet again.
One of the things I adore about Opera Software are their innovations. However, when it comes to releasing Final builds (major release), it’s usually the same story. Continue Reading
Google Will Benefit from Internet Explorer 9, Says Microsoft
Few months ago, it was announced that Internet Explorer 9 will be the first browser to use hardware accelerated graphics and text.
According to Microsoft’s senior product manager for Internet Explorer, Pete LePage, Google shall benefit from the upcoming Internet Explorer 9 release. When navigating sluggish sites, such as Google Maps, there will be a noticeable difference.
“That is, hardware graphics acceleration is going to give you better reading experiences – better fonts and an improved ability to see images and scroll through them.”
“Because we are moving all of the graphics processing to the part of the computer that is designed for it, you will get a smooth, wonderful experience.”
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Next Firefox JavaScript Engine to Use WebKit
According to hacks.mozilla.org, the upcoming Firefox JavaScript engine (codenamed JägerMonkey) will be using some of the WebKit code snippets to speed things up.
Although JägerMonkey is still in early stages, engine is already 18% faster than its predecessor (thanks to WebKit). Furthermore, ETA is not yet announced.
As for codename, Jäger is a German word that means “hunter”, go figure.
Thanks to mabdul and Nox for the news tip.
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Opera Downloads Triples, Ballot Screen to “Blame”?
According to Rolf Assev, Opera’s chief strategy officer, desktop browser downloads has tripled in some of the countries, since the launch of ballot screen.
Although Opera 10.50 Final was released at the time of ballot screen debut (1 day difference), he added: “We compared the downloads against previous launches, such as Opera 10.0, 10.10 and 9.5, and the tripling is above what we would normally expect with a new version launch”.
Waiting for download numbers…
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Weekly Browsers Recap, March 1st
- IE tag – Take Two
- Documenting Standards in IE
- Microsoft investigating new Internet Explorer vulnerability in Windows XP
- Microsoft plays dirty against other browsers in Russia
- Firefox Mobile Browser Fennec Spotted on Android
- External Text Editing in Firefox
- The Downfall of Personas
- Coming Soon To Chrome: Extensions That Can Alter Your Browsing History
- Google Chrome Tip: Recovering closed tabs
- Zero-days flaws surface in Apple Safari
- Opera Mini Server Upgrade to 4.16.916
- Browser history hijack + social networks = lost anonymity
- Camino 2.0.2 Released
Thanks to mabdul and Nox for links.
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Opera 10.50, the Evolution of Performance
One of our readers, Daniel Hendrycks has spent quite some time benchmarking all the weekly/nightly builds of Opera 10.50 web browser, to give you a glimpse, on how its performance has evolved.
