Mozilla and several other browser developers have voiced concern over the dominance of WebKit-based browsers, notably Safari and Chrome. World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) co-chairman Daniel Glazman suggests programmers have begun to disregard alternative browsers, such as Firefox and Internet Explorer, when optimizing website compatibility.
New leaks have hinted that Windows 8 could make important gestures to catch certain users. Although it's still thought by The Verge that the regular Windows 8 desktop won't be on ARM, it will purportedly kick in for Internet Explorer and Office 15. The restriction would in part be to keep traditional Windows apps from draining the battery, since they can't suspend themselves like Windows 8's new Metro apps.
Microsoft has started running a slew of full-page newspaper ads in an attempt to scare users over Google's simpler privacy policies. It claims that Google's attempts to simplify and clarify its policies are disingenuous and that the real goal is to "connect the dots" between Google's services and track users. It goes on to insist that the policy makes it difficult to back out.
Android tablets are gaining share of Internet use, but they still present no competition to the iPad online, NetApplications uncovered with its January wrap-up. The combined Samsung Galaxy Tab line had just 0.42 percent of mobile Internet share, while the Kindle Fire's possibly brisk sales still saw just 0.34 percent. Although down from December, the iPad at almost 24 percent was still in no danger from Android tablets, where even Android 3.2 was at 0.77 percent.
Microsoft's hopes that Internet Explorer 6 would die were partly validated after the company's Roger Capriotti noted that the decade-old browser had been reduced to irrelevance in the US. Working from data at NetApplications, he declared IE6 over as it made up just 0.9 percent of all American web traffic. The US was late, having been preceded by parts of Europe and Scandinavia, but was coming at the same time as the Czech Republic, Mexico, the Philippines, and others were also dropping below one percent.
Microsoft's claims that Windows Phone 7.5 would beat iOS in web browsing speed have already been rendered obsolete after a follow-up test run. A comparison from YouTube user 359gsm posted at My Nokia Blog of a Nokia Lumia 800 pitted against both an iPhone 4 using iOS 4.3 and an iPhone 4S on iOS 5. While Microsoft's showcase HTML5 Speed Reading test sees the Lumia beat the iPhone 4, even the older, 1GHz Apple phone and OS beat the 1.4GHz Windows Phone soundly in every other test, including Browsermark, the JavaScript-focused Sunspider test, and the generic HTML5 Test.
In spite of its device share, Android is losing ground in terms of actual use online, NetApplications found on New Year's Day. Android slipped to 16.3 percent of mobile web share in December, or the same share it had in September. Unusually, most of the loss came to otherwise shrinking platforms: Java ME bounced back to get just under 21.3 percent, Symbian returned to 5.8 percent, and even the BlackBerry recovered slightly to 3.5 percent.
Microsoft hopes that Internet Explorer 9 will have reached a 25 percent share of the desktop browsing market on its own Windows 7 platform once figures for December are in. According to projections from Net Applications, IE9 will soon become the leading browser among Windows 7 users, overtaking IE8. As it stands, IE9 has now also overtaken Chrome and Firefox in browser user on Windows 7.
When Google and Mozilla renewed their search royalty deal earlier this week, they didn't reveal that Google will pay $300 million per year, AllThingsD learned. For this amount of money, Google will be the default search engine in Mozilla's Firefox browser. The numbers are a sharp increase from the previous arrangement because of the new competition from Yahoo and Microsoft.
Microsoft GM Ryan Gavin told Windows users that the company would start auto-updating Internet Explorer. Beginning with Australia and Brazil in January, anyone using Windows XP or later with automatic updates turned on will go to the most recent version of the browser available for the OS without prompting. More countries would come in line over time.
Microsoft has partnered with Internet music service Last.fm to create a website optimized for Internet Explorer 9. The Discover site leverages the browser's inbuilt functionality to provide pinning and JumpList features. Also, by building upon an HTML5 foundation, the companies claim the web-based service will have the look and feel of a native Windows app.
Windows saw a rare increase in its share of the web in November, NetApplications found on Thursday. Microsoft bounced back slightly from a low in October to just over 92.2 percent. The increase pushed the Mac down half a point from its all-time high, although still giving its second-best result to date at 6.46 percent.
Barnes & Noble in its defense against Microsoft has countered with a 43-page list of prior art that it believes invalidate Microsoft's supposedly Android-related patents. The examples often go back over 16 years and include software as far back as NCSA's Mosaic browser, the precursor to Netscape and Microsoft's own Internet Explorer. The strategy would only need a handful of prior art claims to negate Microsoft's case.
Foursquare picked Tuesday to show a heavily redesigned version of its main website. The page depends on HTML5 and uses it for a fully location-aware map; users can browse nearby areas without having to search for them or use their phones. The interface is also suited to the iPad, although users can't yet check in.
Google has updated Google+ to more tightly integrate the app with two other web and desktop apps, YouTube and Chrome. For YouTube, the company has added a "slider" to make it easier for an individual to share personal videos with members of their circles. Google has also added a +1 button and notification button to Chrome to help users stay in touch with their circles as well.
The latest data on mobile and desktop browser use is in and its shows that Apple has extended its lead as the dominant mobile web browsing platform. Safari usage rates increased from 55.6 percent of all mobile web traffic in September to a new high of 62.2 percent in October. Google’s mobile browser leap frogged Opera Mini by taking 18.7 percent of web traffic, while Opera Mini dipped from 18.9 percent to 13.1 percent.
An internal staff memo slipped out to WinRumors Monday has pointed to the HTC HD7S getting its hoped for Windows Phone 7.5 update soon. As of Tuesday, AT&T and Microsoft will start rolling out the OS upgrade on a gradual basis. The revamp is showing up in "controlled batch" amounts to make sure there aren't any problems.
Google is previewing Dart, a new programming language for building web apps. The language has been designed to be flexible, meeting the needs of a one-person project, without much structure, and scaling up to a large-scale project needing formal types in the code. Initially the code will support at least Chrome, Safari 5, and Firefox 4 browsers, but not Internet Explorer.
The Mac hit a pair of record highs in web share during September thanks to the back-to-school effect, NetApplications found in its monthly roundup. The Mac saw one of its sharpest gains in the past year and was up nearly half a point in desktop share to 6.45 percent. Helped by the new leap, Apple's stake in computers has grown by nearly a quarter in the past year, the close look found.
Microsoft just revealed that Windows 8 will bring with it the ability to sign into a PC with a Windows Live ID for quickly accessing quick settings wherever they are. Doing so is available for all compatible devices, apps and services. Logging in will have the Metro-style apps in their last-used settings and state, for example.
Microsoft's Eric Hautala told Windows Phone owners that the Mango update was finally near rolling out to existing devices. The 7.5 upgrade should arrive in the "next week or two" on the first wave. As with the NoDo update early in the year, Microsoft will have a status page showing how far into testing each release is and how soon it will arrive.
Dean Hachamovithch, Microsoft's Internet Explorer team leader stated in a blog post that the Metro-style version of Internet Explorer 10 will not support Flash or other plugins and will rely on HTML5. Hachamovithch said running Metro style IE plugin free would have advantages for consumers, including improved battery life, enhanced security and privacy, and greater stability. Steve Jobs, chairman of Apple, listed many of the of these same reasons for his decision early on to not support Flash in iOS.
Microsoft has responded to the recently unveiled hack that saw DigiNotar issue fake security certificates for some high-profiles websites by issuing a patch on Tuesday. The patch only applies to affected versions of Windows Vista and is delivered through Internet Explorer. After the vulnerability was discovered on August 28, Microsoft released a security advisory on August 29 and removed the DigitNotar root certificate from the Microsoft Certificate Trust List.
Amazon has quietly provided an end-run around Apple's App Store rules. Kindle Cloud Reader brings a touch-friendly reading app that provides all the settings, highlights, bookmarks and other features of native apps in a device-independent form. The page takes advantage of HTML5 to work entirely offline and thus can keep going even during a flight or another moment where no Internet connection exists.
Apple hit new highs for market share of the web in July, Net Applications found on Monday. The Mac saw a sharp uptick and hit 5.59 percent of OS traffic online. iOS saw its own boost and reached 2.98 percent, almost triple what it had a year ago.
Microsoft has released its second Internet Explorer 10 platform preview, which is said to utilize the same HTML5 engine as the company's recent Windows 8 demos. Developers can take advantage of several new technologies, including CSS3 Positioned Floats, HTML5 drag-drop, File Reader API, Media Query Listeners and support for HTML5 forms.
Opera's creator Jon S. von Tetzchner surprised the industry on Friday with word he was leaving the company. The web browser developer is due to leave June 30 and will do so on friendly terms. He has made no public mention of why he will be leaving but currently has "ideas about new projects" that are being kept secret.
Microsoft has created a dedicated Website to demonstrate the capabilities of its Internet Explorer 9 Mobile. The site, the
An independent security researcher, Rosario Valotta, suggests Internet Explorer is vulnerable to attacks that target the private data stored in HTTP cookies. The flaw is said to leave users open to what Valotta calls "cookiejacking," a method that hackers can reportedly use to access a cookie and log into victims' various online accounts.
Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer gave clues at his presentation for the Japan Microsoft Developer Forum (video below) that the upcoming Mango update for Windows Phone 7 would not just have a large number of features but might be matched by new hardware at the same time. The release would have over 500 new features, including the known expanded language update that would give Japan devices by the end of the year. He alluded also to more details of hardware partners and carriers, suggesting more hardware might show at the planned May 24 event.
Apple made one of its best strides in recent memory for market share on the web last month, NetApplications determined on Sunday. The Mac reached a new adjusted high of 5.4 percent market share, but its gains were small relative to iOS. Led mostly by the iPhone, Apple's combined mobile platform jumped 16.5 percent and staked out 2.24 percent of all web traffic.
Microsoft will be out of the eye of special antitrust terms in less than a month, District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said in the last hearing ever in the case. Oversight of the company's actions, including direct access to its computers and records, would no longer be mandatory after May 12. The watch had been originally limited to five years after a 2002 settlement but had been extended multiple times after technical problems and other issues that needed to be taken care of, including some running past the deadline.
YouTube in an update Tuesday afternoon said it was now encoding all new videos in its in-house WebM standard. The format would let viewers using new versions of Chrome as well as Firefox and Opera see video in HTML5 using the open format. Videos would still be playable in the H.264 format and the original Flash containers.
Microsoft used the first day of its MIX11 conference to unveil the first Platform Preview for Internet Explorer 10. The new version is more iterative but focuses on boosting CSS3 feature support. It now supports gradients, grid and multi-column layouts, and can run in a "strict" mode.
Internet Explorer 9's launch was enough to see it carve out a significant piece of the Windows web in its first two weeks. New data from NetApplications for March showed IE9 getting 3.56 percent of Microsoft's web traffic. While small, it was enough to outpace Firefox 4's 2.8 percent.
Microsoft has staked an interesting claim regarding Internet Explorer 9, essentially labeling it the greenest browser. In an IEBlog post, the company graphed results from power consumption tests using IE9, Chrome 10, Firefox 4, Opera 11 and Safari 5. The first three browsers showed close numbers on an idle system, however IE9 achieved the lowest wattage when visiting a news site and running HTML5 applications.
[Update: Sony, other media companies upset by early announcement] Amazon in the night unveiled its rumored media locker and beat Apple and Google in the process. Cloud Drive gives users a way to store a minimum of 5GB of files on the web and access them from any Mac or PC. The company has a unique tie-in with Amazon MP3: any songs bought through the music store are saved to the Cloud Drive and available either for backup or for remote streaming without counting towards the quota.
Since its official release yesterday, Mozilla's Firefox 4 web browser is at nearly seven million downloads and counting, according to a live counter. This accounts for nearly two percent of the worldwide Internet browser market, said StatCounter, and handily beats out Microsoft Internet Explorer 9's 2.3 million downloads over the course of 24 hours.
Microsoft helped kick off CTIA in earnest by posting the long promised NoDo update to phones that don't already have it preloaded. Phones like the Samsung Focus can now copy and paste text either by tapping a word and then dragging handlebars or else a tap-and-hold to bring up a menu. Pasting text is simple and uses an icon on the text suggestion bar to paste in.
To celebrate the recent launch of Internet Explorer 9.0, YouTube user TheRasteri has posted a near nine-minute video that gives a historical overview of all the browsers that came before it, down to IE 1.0. The homage is full of historical references and landmarks but does give IE9 credit for its improvements in speed, visual simplicity and added features.
Microsoft touted a minor resurgence following the launch of Internet Explorer 9. Team member Ryan Gavin said the browser reached 2.35 million downloads in the first 24 hours of the completed version being online. The number was twice as quick as for the original beta and four times those of the release candidate.
Mozilla's senior engineering director Damon Sicore said later on Tuesday that the finished version of Firefox 4 should be ready on March 22. Barring any last-minute issues in a meeting late Wednesday morning, the team expected Release Candidate 1 to become the final release. In the event of a serious bug, a second release candidate would be posted with the fix and the release pushed back.
As promised earlier, Microsoft at midnight Eastern (9PM Pacific) should post the finished version of Internet Explorer 9 on its download page. The Windows browser brings a much improved engine with genuine web accuracy, faster JavaScript, hardware acceleration, and support for most current forms of HTML5. A new, minimalist interface, support for pinning sites to the Windows 7 taskbar, and detailed control of what sites are allowed to track cookies and other private info are also included.
Microsoft said Wednesday that Internet Explorer 9 was finished. The new web browser will be ready to download at midnight Eastern time, March 15. It follows just a month after the release candidate and a year after the very earliest tech previews.
Microsoft took the uncharacteristic step of goading users to drop one of its products on Friday. The Windows developer's countdown page encourages users to stop using Internet Explorer 6 and tracks the progress towards ending its use. It admitted that its attitude towards the web was different in 2001 and that its at times infamous IE6 rendering engine was now a liability.
The Khronos Group used the second day of the Game Developer Conference to post the finished, 1.0 spec for the WebGL standard. Its language brings OpenGL ES 2.0 visuals to browsers that can recognize WebGL in HTML5 and JavaScript. A suitably equipped browser can play real, 3D games with pixel shaders and other more modern visuals without having to use a plugin, even on phones and tablets.
Net Applications said it was forced to rework its Internet market share figures on Tuesday after the CIA updated its Internet usage to better reflect worldwide computer use. The surge in Chinese users relative to the US meant that alternatives to Microsoft lost share in February. Firefox had not only been "over-reported" and dropped a full point to 21.74 percent, but Internet Explorer made an artificial jump from exactly 56 percent to 56.77 percent, its first market share gain in half a year.
Google late Thursday posted its first public beta of Chrome 10. The browser is the first to use the new Crankshaft engine for JavaScript and is as much as 66 percent faster in crunching JavaScript as today's Chrome 9. Hardware graphics acceleration is also new and, with a fast enough system, could see as much as 80 percent of the main processor's work offloaded to a GPU, extending the battery life on notebooks.
Microsoft during its Mobile World Congress event showed a trio of major updates, among others, that will come to Windows Phone 7 later in the year and which it hopes will challenge Apple. The platform will finally get multitasking and is using a system heavily reminiscent of HP's webOS cards: jumping out shows all of the running apps as thumbnails of their current state and allows switching with simple flicks. Battery issues have reportedly been tackled, and third-part apps now have a wide range of privileges that includes background audio, among others.
As promised, Microsoft has now made the Internet Explores 9 Release Candidate build available for download. Users can download the software in 40 languages, and reflects 17,000 pieces of feedback regarding IE9 from the beta tests. Microsoft touts increases in speed on real-world websites, a faster JavaScript engine, compiler optimizations and network cache tuning.
