Archive for April, 2015
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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March, 2015 Desktop Market Share: Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera – Up; Internet Explorer – Down
Another month, another report.
As Microsoft continues to work on the Project Spartan, Internet Explorer’s market share keeps sliding down, this time by 0.84 point, from 57.38% to 56.54%.
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Firefox For Android Crosses The 100 Million Downloads Mark
If you though that Firefox for Android is used only by a very small amount of people then the latest news might change your mind.
According to Mozilla, the mobile version of Firefox has now been downloaded more than 100 million times from the Google Play store alone. In addition to that, it has been consistently rated with more than 4.0 stars, which is a pretty neat accomplishment.
However, what was not revealed was a number of active users, so who knows how many of these are actually same user re-downloading or (possibly) updating the app.
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UC Browser Comes To Windows
From mobile to desktop.
It looks like the success of UC Browser on handheld devices has allowed developers to invest and create the desktop version of the very same browser as well.
Available for Windows, it comes in two flavors: Global and Indian and features many of the features that you would expect: Cloud Sync, Speed Dial, Themes and so on. And yes, it’s another Chromium web browser.
On a downside, the install is pretty sneaky as the advanced options icon is sort of hidden, not to mention “Set as default browser” option, which is set by default and tries to trick you when you open UC Browser for the very first time with this:
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Google Chrome Will Have A Much Better Scrolling Performance
Thanks to Microsoft.
Even though Microsoft and Google are always fighting these weird battles (at least when it comes to the Internet drama, from Scroogled campaigns to Windows Phone users blocking), it looks like the search giant has seen the light and will be implementing some of the Microsoft technologies.
The technology we’re talking about is Pointer Events API, which is already used in the Internet Explorer, Opera and Firefox.
Despite obvious benefits such as improved scrolling due to a combination of touch and mouse events into a single set, Google has resisted the change and focused on improving their own APIs instead. However, the pressure from the developers did change their mind
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Firefox 37 Will Encrypt Non HTTPS Traffic
Grab it now.
In an effort to protect its users privacy, the developers of Firefox web browser have made some serious changes that will allow to encrypt non https (http://) traffic.
How is that even possible? You can thank opportunistic encryption, a technique, which encrypts the communication when connecting to another system. As a result, Firefox will route HTTP (port 80) requests that are usually sent in the cleartext to a port of server administrator’s choice. In addition to that, users won’t experience any delays as connections will be fully established before they are even used.
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Download Opera 30 Developer Preview
With one new and usable goodie.
Now here’s an update that many people should appreciate. Thanks to the community feedback and Opera’s desire to please its users, the latest developer preview build includes a feature, which makes its easier to switch between old and current tabs.
How is it called? A tab cycler. Basically, you can now cycle through the tabs with keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl + 1/2 for Windows and Linux and ⌘ + ⇧Shift + ←/→ for Mac). In addition to that, Recently Closed tabs will now appear in the same area with its own section as well as other devices tabs.
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Microsoft Bends Over, Changes Its Mind Regarding DNT
Ad agencies rejoice.
Remember when Microsoft was all pro consumer, pro privacy and all that? Resulting in praises from various companies and users after it was decided to enable Do Not Track (DNT) by default in both IE10 and IE11?
Well, the good news are over as Microsoft has just changed its mind and won’t be enabling such feature by default.
Why? The recent W3C draft update now includes the following: “The basic principle is that a tracking preference expression is only transmitted when it reflects a deliberate choice by the user. In the absence of user choice, there is no tracking preference expressed”
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