11/01, 5:45pm
Windows share drops in Oct despite Win 7
The launch of Windows 7 in October did nothing to stop an increase in Mac share online, the latest data from Net Applications shows. Although the Microsoft OS was on sale for nine days last month, Windows' combined share of Internet traffic actually dropped to 92.52 percent while Mac OS X profited directly, reaching a new high of 5.27 percent. Windows 7 did gain share and represents 2.15 percent, but its gain was more than offset by a full percentage point of Windows users abandoning Windows XP, in many cases opting for the Mac or other platforms.
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10/09, 12:20pm
Timeframe suggests accelerated development
The Mac version of Chrome should be released before Christmas this year, suggests Google CEO Eric Schmidt. The executive made the revelation at a New York press conference, in the middle of answering a question about the browser's overall marketshare. Chrome's share has been disparaged by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who recently called the browser "a rounding error." Microsoft's Internet Explorer remains the dominant web browser worldwide.
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10/01, 5:50pm
NetApplications shows Mac, Firefox gains
More than a sixth of all Macs are already running Mac OS X Snow Leopard in just over a month of use, new findings from NetApplications show. On September 29th, the one month anniversary of the release, about 18 percent of all Macs tracked by the stats firm were using some version of Snow Leopard, or 0.91 percent of all computers.
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09/30, 10:55am
Also dismisses Safari, Chrome
Windows is regaining some of its marketshare, claims Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. "We’re gaining share. Apple is expensive," Ballmer says in a new interview. "And in tough economic environment, people get it. Their [Apple's] model is, by definition, expensive. And we’ve actually held or maybe even gained just a tiny bit of share relative to the Mac in the last 12 months. And it’s not really Snow Leopard. It’s really Windows PCs versus Mac."
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09/24, 4:05pm
Chrome Frame doubles security risk in IE: MS
The recently introduced Chrome Frame plug-in from Google that runs in Internet Explorer 8 has drawn criticism from Microsoft on Thursday. A spokesperson responding to a ZDNet query claimed that Chrome Frame is a security risk as it doubles "the attach area for malware and malicious scripts" by introducing a second web engine. Google's code is also alleged to be less secure than that for IE8 and thus more prone to attack in its own right.
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09/01, 5:50pm
Chrome browser only in OS
A dug up line of code indicates Google's upcoming Chrome OS may have what is being called a Chrome OS login manager. While its significance can only be guessed at, it indicates that the Chrome web browser will be very closely integrated with the operating system. There is also speculation of the OS not allowing users to operate other web browsers on their machines. The login manager will be a single sign-on (SSO) cookie, eliminating the need for users to sign into their Google services, such as Gmail, Calendars, Docs, etc separately.
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09/01, 2:45pm
Sony VAIOs get Chrome
Sony's PC arm and Google have entered into a partnership that will have the latter's Chrome web browser preloaded onto the former's VAIO netbook PCs. Google is also apparently in talks with other PC makers to make its browser the default in new PCs, in similar fashion to competitor Microsoft and its Internet Explorer browser. Sony PCs with Chrome are already shipping, though Google is saying the deal is thus far experimental. Google is also promoting the browser through TV advertising, a first for the company, and making it available when they download RealPlayer software.
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08/17, 11:55am
Chrome OS Shots Again
A new set of shots that have surfaced this weekend claim to show a more accurate early version of Google's Chrome OS. Unlike a set of since-debunked first images, the new images of the supposed 0.1.15 beta appear more substantive than before. They show a Mac-like dock at the top but with a built-in search bar and Google apps as default.
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08/10, 5:25pm
Macs Faster On Web
Despite stereotypes, Macs are typically faster than Windows PCs on the web, according to data from FutureMark. Best known for its 3DMark benchmark suite, the company says that Apple's systems are about 5 to 10 percent faster on average in its Peacekeeper web code test than Windows computers with equivalent hardware. This includes any browser that runs on both platforms, including Apple's own Safari as well as Firefox and Opera.
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08/07, 5:15pm
ASUS Eee PC with Moblin
ASUS will release an Eee PC netbook later this year with Intel's Moblin Linux operating system, according to a Friday report from German website NetbookNews. The news is not official, but the site says it has a reliable source for the netbook, which is expected to come out in October. Moblin will not be preloaded on a new Eee PC, but an existing one, with many expecting it to appear on the slim Seashell line of Eee PCs.
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08/05, 3:45pm
Net App Browser Share July
Internet Explorer's share of the web browser market has dropped to its lowest point in recent memory thanks to inroads from Apple and Google, new stats from Net Applications show. The web tracking firm says Microsoft's browser now has 67.68 percent of the market, lower than a previous low in April. Most of the losses came from both Chrome and Safari, which themselves reached all-time highs of 2.59 percent and 4.07 percent respectively.
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08/03, 11:00am
Microsoft Drops Win 7 E
Microsoft this weekend revealed that it would drop plans to launch Windows 7 E for Europe following a change in attitude from the European Commission. The special release, which would have provided Windows without any browser at all, is being scrapped as the Commission has tentatively embraced the company's browser ballot approach to providing a choice of web browsers. These customers should now get the same version of Windows 7 as elsewhere.
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07/24, 3:20pm
Euro Win 7 Multi Browser
Microsoft this afternoon hoped to settle the European Commission's antitrust case over unfair web browser bundling by promising to give users a choice of web browsers when Windows 7 ships in October. The proposal mimics the EC's solution and would provide a "ballot" that lets first-time users choose from one of multiple browsers, all of which would be pre-loaded in Windows. As before, users could also download other browsers and set them as the default.
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07/10, 10:50am
Schmidt Resisted Chrome OS
Google CEO Eric Schmidt as part of his presentation at the Allen & Co. conference later on Thursday revealed that he had initially resisted both Chrome the web browser and eventually Chrome OS. In addition to discussing the possible conflict of interest with Apple after the unveiling of the full operating system, Schmidt told those gathered that he had originally wanted to avoid Chrome, and the OS as a result, after being soured by the early browser competition that eventually gave Microsoft's Internet Explorer the lead. It wasn't until company founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page showed a promising demo of Chrome that the chief executive eventually agreed to move ahead.
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07/10, 8:30am
Google CEO Talks to Apple
Google chief Eric Schmidt last evening said he would talk to Apple to determine whether or not he should recuse himself from the Mac maker's board of directors following the unveiling of Chrome OS. The executive told those at Allen & Co's technology conference that there is currently "no issue" with his remaining on the board but that he will ask Apple if it sees a conflict of interest to have another desktop operating system developer involved in its decisions. Apple itself hasn't commented on any possible change in relationship.
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07/08, 4:50pm
MS Teaser and Gazelle
Microsoft is planning a "big" announcement on Monday that may have forced Google's hand in launching Chrome OS, tech pundit and Rackspace blogger Robert Scoble claimed today. While a non-disclosure agreement prevents him from providing further details, he implies that the news will have something to do with web apps, which will be the way software can run in Google's upcoming platform.
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07/08, 2:55pm
Chrome OS and Apple Board
Google's launch of Chrome OS today could create a conflict of interest that forces its chief Eric Schmidt off of Apple's board of directors. Although the two companies continue to collaborate on the iPhone, iLife and other projects, the creation of an operating system intended for full-fledged computers now means Google has products that can compete directly with two out of three of Apple's key businesses, as Android and now Chrome OS both give it a vested interest against the iPhone and Mac OS X.
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07/08, 7:45am
Google Chrome OS
Google early today staked out its claim in full computer operating systems with word that it would launch its own. Chrome OS is meant "initially" for netbooks and relies solely on web apps; while Linux underneath, all software is just an instance of the Chrome web browser running in a custom windowing system. The approach not only keeps a small app footprint but sandboxes any content to prevent malware attacks from spreading. Importantly, nearly any Chrome OS app should also work in a truly standards-based web browser regardless of platform.
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06/12, 8:45am
EU Say Win 7 E Not Enough
Microsoft's decision to pull Internet Explorer from Windows 7 in Europe isn't enough to address EU antitrust complaints about the company's abuse of the market, the European Commission said Friday. The continent's officials now say that Microsoft's proposed solution would actually hurt competition as it would leave the five percent of those buying retail copies of Windows each year with few options. Instead of having an immediate choice, buyers would have to resort to obtaining a physical copy of a web browser or else some alternative.
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06/05, 11:30am
Early Chrome for Mac build
Google has begun distributing a very early build of Chrome for the Mac. The company warns that the browser -- still in developer channels -- remains very unstable, and may exhibit behaviors such as crashes. The software is moreover missing many basic features, such as the ability to print, change privacy settings or even load Flash videos from sites like YouTube.
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05/21, 3:25pm
Google Chrome Speed Boost
Google this afternoon launched an official update to its Chrome browser that it hopes will fight back against Safari 4 and other newer rivals. The upgrade further refines the software's distinctive JavaScript engine and is estimated to be about 30 percent faster when using web apps and other sites that depend heavily on the code. Chrome similarly gets updates that bring it up to par with some features on other browsers, such as autofill for forms as well as a full-screen mode and the ability to remove unwanted thumbnails from the "most visited" page.
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04/21, 3:35pm
Google O3D
Google this afternoon took the covers from an early version of O3D, a new standard for controllable 3D on the web. The format is intended to be a truly browser- and OS-independent format that supports truly modern 3D graphics and which runs well when interacting with the modern web. It takes advantage of the shader (visual programming) effects of current graphics chipsets to produce visuals such as rippling water, reflections and fire, all while properly supporting JavaScript for elements such as real-time changes to the 3D world.
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04/15, 3:40pm
Microsoft 2nd EU Delay
Microsoft today said it had been given a second extension by the European Commission to prepare a response against antitrust charges that it has unfairly controlled web browsers. Having already been given a first extension that gave it until April 21st, the American firm has until April 28th to provide its own stance and early defense against the claims. Why the added time is required hasn't been formally explained.
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03/20, 3:25pm
IE8 Launch Stats
The release of Internet Explorer 8 hasn't had any significant impact on Firefox or any other competing browser, data collected by StatsCounter shows. While the final release of IE8 increased its market share slightly on launch day to 1.39 percent, Firefox 3.0 grew more quickly and reached 25.38 percent. The most significant losses were for Internet Explorer 7: the outgoing browser lost 0.4 percent of the total share.
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03/11, 11:50am
MS Extension on EU Charges
The European Commission today said it would give Microsoft extra time to respond to its statement of objection that accuses Microsoft of breaking antitrust laws by requiring that Internet Explorer ship with Windows. The American company now has until April 21st to provide an initial response after it complained that the original eight-week deadline, or March 12th, didn't give it enough time to offer a proper answer to the charges. It's not known if the delay will affect other aspects of the case.
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02/26, 3:50pm
Pwn2Own Targets Phones
TippingPoint has revealed that the 2009 edition of the Pwn2Own hacking contest will shift its focus to smartphones this year in one of the first few cross-platform tests of mobile OS security to include iPhones. The 3Com-owned security group will challenge guests at the March 18th CanSecWest conference to gain full OS-level control of both Apple's device as well as one phone each for Google's Android platform, RIM's BlackBerry OS, Symbian and Windows Mobile. The contest take place in two phases and allow only network-based exploits on the first day; the second will let experts target the pre-installed software.
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02/16, 4:05pm
Custom Chrome for Mac
A primitive Mac version of Google's Chrome browser has been compiled by an independent coder and released to the public. The build, number 9780, is actually based on the development Chromium version of the Mac browser, which is still in a early state and may not produce a formal Mac version of Chrome until as late as June. The custom build is nevertheless said to add working links, and be less than 50ms slower than a recent WebKit nightly build.
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02/13, 12:25pm
Mac Chrome in early phases
The Mac version of Google's Chrome web browser continues to make progress, but at a slow speed, one of its developers hints. Work during the past couple of months is said to have mostly revolved around basic layout tests and WebKit compatibility, and only recently progressed to developing the interface. Links remain non-functional, and renderers are said to regularly crash.
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01/12, 5:25pm
Chrome for Mac
Google has narrowed the projected time-frame for a Mac release of its Chrome browser, according the CNET News. Owners of both Mac and Linux systems should be able to download the program by the first half of the year. "That's what we've been hoping for," said Brian Radowski, product manager for Chrome. "Those two efforts proceeding in parallel. They're at the same level of progress."
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01/02, 11:45am
Safari use rises in Dec.
Minority browsers grew in popularity again during the month of December, according to tracking figures from Net Applications. Marketshare for Mozilla's Firefox reached 21.34 percent, up from 20.78 percent in November; Apple's Safari jumped from 7.13 to 7.93 percent, and Google's new, Windows-only Chrome browser shifted from 0.83 to 1.04 percent. This marks the first time the software has been over the 1 percent mark.
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12/26, 2:20pm
Cygnus vs. Apple, etc.
Apple, Google and Microsoft have all been targeted in a lawsuit related to software technology, reports say. The three have been accused by Cygnus System of violating US patent 7,346,850, System and method for iconic software environment management. In depth, the patent describes "a method and system for storing, navigating, and accessing files within an operating system through the use of a graphical thumbnail representing the video display of the active document within the active application."
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12/16, 3:45pm
IE7 Zero-Day Exploit
A new and previously undiscovered vulnerability in Internet Explorer 7 has triggered warnings to at least temporarily avoid the browser until it can be fixed. The exploit, which takes advantage of the browser's data binding feature to create a memory hole, is unique to Microsoft's code and potentially dangerous due to its usability over the web. A maliciously formed website can use the exploit to steal private data or otherwise compromise the system; some benign websites have been turned hostile using the exploit and other vulnerabilities, the company says.
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12/10, 12:05pm
Google Chrome Leaving Beta
Google's Chrome web browser is soon to exit beta thanks partly to a plan to expand its reach, company VP Marissa Miller has told TechCrunch at this year's Le Web conference in Paris. The WebKit-based browser has been relatively slow to gain share since its debut in September but will be marked as a finished product on an upcoming release to let PC makers bundle an officially completed version with their systems.
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12/01, 11:55am
Net Apps Share Nov 2008
New research data today from Net Applications has revealed both Apple and Mozilla bringing Microsoft's share of the web to historic lows for November. The Mac's usage share of the more than 40,000 websites tracked by the Internet firm has now reached 8.87 percent for the past month; the increase is a major jump from the previous record of 8.23 percent in September and is enough to have pushed Microsoft's Windows below 90 percent usage online for the first time in years.
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11/21, 12:05pm
S3 Chrome 500
Best known for its integrated video in recent years, VIA's graphics label S3 late yesterday introduced the Chrome 500 series of graphics chips. The hardware is built to challenge the Radeon HD 4350 and other budget dedicated cards both in the feature set and performance with a newer unified shader (effects) processor design that supports DirectX 10.1+ and OpenGL 3 for graphics as well as general-purpose computing tasks written to support the Chrome hardware.
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11/06, 11:45pm
Microsoft may adopt WebKit
Microsoft's well known Internet Explorer web browser may have an open source sibling on its way based on WebKit, of Safari and Google Chrome fame, if statements made by CEO Steve Ballmer are indicative. TechWorld writes that Ballmer, speaking in front of developers in Sydney, answered a question posed by a student, on why Microsoft insisted on dumping money into the rendering platform, rather than adopting a faster open source model. Ballmer thought the question to be "cheeky," but provided a humble response.
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09/19, 1:25pm
SquirrelFish Extreme debut
The team behind WebKit -- the rendering code used in browsers like Chrome and Safari -- says it has developed a dramatically faster version of its JavaScript engine, SquirrelFish. SquirrelFish Extreme is said to use four different technologies, such as bytecode-level optimizations, that together contribute to performance more than twice that of the current engine or 10 times the level in Safari 3.0. Speed is expected to increase as Extreme development progresses.
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09/17, 11:40am
Chrome vs. Safari
Google's Chrome browser is not displacing Apple's Safari software as it continues to gain marketshare, says Net Applications. The company has posted tracking results for the second week following Chrome's release, which show an increase in use from an initial 0.67 percent to 0.85, based on data collected from some 40,000 websites. This has come at the expense of several competing browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera.
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09/04, 4:35pm
Brin on Chrome for Mac
The Mac version of Google's Chrome web browser should arrive in "a matter of months," says Google co-founder Sergey Brin. The executive, interviewed by Wall Street Journal writer Kara Swisher, claims it is "embarassing" that a Mac version is not already out, since both he and Swisher use Macs. To cope with the situation, Brin says he is relying on virtualization software from VMware. At present Chrome runs only on Windows.
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09/04, 2:50pm
Chrome Likely for Android
Google's Chrome browser is likely to be ported over to the company's Android mobile phone platform, longtime company veteran Sergey Brin has said in an interview. Explaining the reason Android doesn't already come with the browser, Brin says Google was unwilling to "bind" the fate of the two software projects but that the near-final code now makes it safer to consider loading Android with at least some aspects of Chrome, which has a much faster JavaScript engine friendly to web apps.
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09/04, 12:10pm
Chrome EULA, security
Google's newly-launched Chrome browser -- currently Windows-only but expected to launch soon for Mac and Linux -- is already taking some serious criticism, according to various groups. An initial concern was Google's end-user license agreement (EULA), which effectively claimed the right to use anything posted online via the browser, raising issues of both privacy and intellectual property. This language was actually a mistake, Google now claims.
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