Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Bill Gates promised frequent updates way back when they were doing the final testing of IE7. Yet somehow, it’s been almost two years before they finally released the beta mode of Internet Explorer 8 just today. Some will hurrah, some will cringe, some won’t care one way or the other. But...it’s out...and along with actually seeming to be an improvement over the previous version...it’s pretty clear that the folks at Microsoft are also using their latest browser as a clever little way to try to take over some Google ground.

I admit, I’m a diehard Firefox user. And when I checked out IE8 beta, I immediately recognized the same thing others seem to be seeing. The Smart Address Bar is very similar to the Awesome Bar in Firefox 3. When you start to type in the address bar, it tries to guess where you want to go, based on where you’ve been before. Although I have to give it to Microsoft, their Smart Bar seems to do the job even a little better. It shows history items, autocomplete suggestions, and your saved Favorites all in lists that you can collapse or expand with just a click. Also, you can delete an address from the Smart Bar with just a click as well, which is really handy for any addresses you may have in there that were typed incorrectly or if you have bookmarks you just don’t use anymore. 

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Mozilla Labs announced yesterday the release of the Initial Prototype of the latest project meant to connect the web with language - Ubiquity.  From a quote on their blog, the folks over at Mozilla Labs hope to “find new user interfaces that could make it possible for everyone to do common Web tasks more quickly and easily.”

Ok. So, what the heck does that mean? An example of what they are saying their program would be useful for could be this. You just snagged some concert tickets from a radio contest to a show happening tonight. Coolness. Only you haven’t been to this venue before, and neither has the friend that you’re emailing and inviting. Not so cool. Heck...you haven’t even heard of the band. Do you even know if you want to go? Is there anywhere to eat on the way? Now, normally, you’d have to be searching out the address on some mapping site, looking up the band for some info on them, copying all of this into an email (including either links or the map itself as well). Lots of typing, clicking, searching, copying, pasting, right? Well, this is some of what Ubiquity hopes to get rid of.

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Only ten days left of August. Microsoft claimed Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 would be out some time this month. Well, the countdown is on. And hmmmm...there are rumors flying around that it is going to be a special version. Private. Yeah, code name for “porn mode”.

Private browsing lets a user go anywhere they want without leaving any tracks. It’s like they were just magically never there.  Firefox decided not to go with it, and currently Safari is the only browser sporting this feature. The Mozilla Foundation, however does argue that “although while viewing pornography may be a popular use case due to the nature of content on the Web, assuming that this is the only reason that users need private browsing trivializes the overall feature. For instance, users may wish to begin a private browsing session to research a medical condition, or plan a surprise vacation or birthday party for a loved one.”

If trademark filings are any indications...the rumors of IE taking on private browsing may indeed be based on fact. July 30th filings by Microsoft:

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It seems that Mozilla must credit a fairly large portion of its Guinness World Record for the highest number of software downloads in a 24 hour period to none other than Stephen Colbert himself. It’s not surprising to hear that Colbert’s on-show guests experience a rush of publicity immediately after being viewed on the show, but could Colbert also have an influence on Al Gore’s internets? Apparently, after mentioning the release of Firefox 3 on his show, “The Colbert Report,” Mozilla’s servers experienced a huge spike in downloads from their site on Download Day. Referred to as the “Colbert Bump,” the effect of the rush in publicity is known to earn increased sales, news interviews, and in this case, and incredible number of downloads. At minute 23 of the broadcast, Colbert says just 7 words: “Firefox 3 just got the Colbert Bump.” Sure enough, minutes later Mozilla sees a huge jump in downloads on their website. Not only was the “bump” felt during the live broadcast, but another bump can be seen when the episode was replayed a couple hours later. Now, if he can influence the hearts of thousands of internet users, why did he drop out of that election? He is the Internet (And So Can You!).

Via [Mozilla Blog]

Mozilla is growing, and it seems that in addition to the recent world record, which was set for the software downloads in a 24 hour time period, they have also risen to 19.03% of the market share. Mozilla saw an increase from 18.41% up to 19.03% from the end of May to the end of June.

Of course, Firefox may be seeing an increase, which is at least partially due to the recent release of Firefox 3, but Internet Explorer still remains on top with a whopping 73.01%.

On the other hand, some are saying that because of the auto-update features within Firefox, that those users are amongst the most users with up to date versions of their browser installed. Firefox was noted as having 83% of their users with an up to date software version, as compared to just 63.3% of Safari users, 56.1% of Opera users and IE having just 47.6% of users with the latest and most stable version.

Read [Yahoo! News]

Perhaps in a catch-up game with the recent launch of the ultra popular Mozilla Firefox 3 and upcoming Opera 9.5, Microsoft has been beefing up its own Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) with plethora of new security features

Currently in public beta phase, this once dominant Web browser hopes to win back the hearts of its disheartened users with its new anti-malware protection and Cross Site Scripting (XSS) filter to fight against the so-called reflection attacks.

On top of these new developments, Microsoft recently announced other security features in IE8 such as the upgraded version of its phishing filter called SmartScreen Filter, improvement on ActiveX controls as well as anti-social engineering features.

However, most of these features are already available in other Web browsers so it won’t do much to help IE8 differentiate itself from competition. To make matters worse, your computer must be running Windows Vista SP1 or Windows XP SP3 for you to enjoy this added protection.

In short, we suggest sticking with Firefox!

Read [InformationWeek]

Well, it has now become official, Firefox 3 has set the record for the most software downloads in a 24 hour time period and have been added to the Guinness World Records. The time period coincided with the launch of Firefox 3 and ran from 18:16 UTC on June 17, 2008 to 18:16 UTC on June 18, 2008 during which a total of 8,002,530 people downloaded the software.

The downloads also did not stop there, as of current, which is just about two weeks since the launch, Firefox 3 has been downloaded just over 28 million times. Overall that is pretty impressive, but at least according to this user, so is Firefox. If you have not already I would suggest giving Firefox 3 a try.

Read [SpreadFirefox]

As far as 3 years back, Flock has been trying to integrate it all together –multiple online accounts, activities, profiles, feeds and the like. While version 1.0 was not necessarily bad, Flock version 2.o – built on Firefox 3 foundations – looks to be a solid integrative application, even at beta testing stage.

The first thing users will notice on Flock 2.0 is the speed. Switching between features is very smooth, unlike the first version in that while it was never slow, it used to process feature-switching a bit more. And it is a bit-more feature-packed the second time around. New features like auto-completion where it was most needed, and the improved password manager, were integrated into older, more familiar features like Pownce, Digg and AOL mail sidebar access.

There’s always room for improvement, and maybe Flock should pay more attention to the feedback they’re getting. Considering the integration that Flock is hyping on, the blog editor (an often used feature) is a bit… weak, for lack of better terms. Also, a choice of more skins for the application would be a fresh addition, especially since this is a major strength of the Firefox 3 engine.

All in all, Flock 2.0 is a huge leap in the right direction of “bringing everything together”.  A couple of tweaks here and there and Flock might just convince most web-empowered people to drop IE or regular Firefox.

Read [Mashable]

We had already expected the release to come in mid-June and it looks like Mozilla has held that date true, they have officially announced that Firefox 3 will be available on June 17.

In addition, they have also, as we mentioned early yesterday, released an additional release candidate as RC3 that took care of a few last minute bugs found in the Mac version.

Otherwise start getting ready to download and install Firefox 3 on June 17, and don’t forget to help all of your not-so-computer literate friends and family members do the same.

In addition to the release, June 17 will also be the day that Mozilla is attempting to set the world record for the most software downloaded during a single day.

Read [Mozilla]

While we were all set and waiting for the final release of Firefox to drop at anytime now, CNET is reporting that some of us may indeed be given an RC 3 sometime today. The latest release, which will come officially as RC 3 will only be for Mac users as the Windows and Linux versions are already considered stable. The changes are also reported to be “internal” so assuming you are a Mac user and do choose to update, its more than likely you will not see any difference. Still no word of any delay with the final release, so as of now Firefox 3 is still on track for a “mid-June” release.

Read [CNET]