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Long-awaited Chrome Beta May Be Near

Brian Proffit — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:49:01 -0600

CNET reports that the long-awaited Chrome browser from Google will be released into beta in early December. The information came from a post in Google’s online discussion group for developers of extensions to Chrome. In it, Nick Baum encourages extension developers to be ready “for our Beta launch in early December.”

The post was in reference to new Browser Actions technology in Chrome that Google is encouraging all extension developers to use. Frustratingly, though, Baum continued to urge developers to look at adopting the Linux and Windows versions, saying, "We’ll bring you cross-platform parity as soon as we can.”

Google hasn’t yet confirmed the beta release date on their Chrome site or in their official blog.

Apple Releases iPhone 3.1 Beta 3, Adds New Video APIs

Cory Bohon — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:24:43 -0500

Today Apple released iPhone 3.1 beta 3 to developers, making it clear that they are now serious about augmented reality on the device. Engadget is reporting that developers now have access to new video APIs that allow applications the ability to use the video camera in the iPhone 3GS.

Augmented reality apps gained traction over the past few months and we can only imagine the types of apps that will now include this. That is if Apple allows them in the App Store. If you have access to the iPhone Dev Center, you can now download and install 3.1 beta 3 on your device.

via Engadget

Apple Gives Developers iPhone 3.1 Beta 2

Cory Bohon — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:04:06 -0500

Tonight Apple sent out an iPhone update to developers, giving them access to OS 3.1 beta 2. The first beta version of 3.1 introduced many refinements to the big 3.0 that Apple released last month, including non-destructive editing of videos, and the ability speak voice commands over a bluetooth connection.

In the update documentation, Apple doesn't mention any major changes to the original 3.1 beta, but this secondary release of 3.1 could mean that the consumer update might be nearing.

Via MacRumors

First Look - Safari 4 Beta

Roberto Baldwin — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:23:33 -0600

Apple announced and released the Safari 4 Beta this morning for all the world to download and try out. The latest Safari incarnation promises to be faster and easier to use than Safari 3.

I tried out the new browser this morning in between cans of Red Bull and the recording of our Tuesday Mac|Live Podcast. Here is what I learned:

- It's fast. Not just, "Oh hey, we tweaked some code fast." More like they pulled the old Ford Pinto engine out and replaced it with a super-charged BMW M3 engine with 110 octane fuel sloshing around inside. Without even doing a side-by-side comparison of Safari 3, the Safari 4 Beta screams out of the gate. It's faster than Firefox and Safari 3. Noticeably faster.

- Cover Flow. I'll admit it. I've never been a fan of Cover Flow. I don't use it in iTunes, the Finder or on any iPhones or iPods. Yet, in Safari when surfing through your history, I find actually useful.

- Top Sites. Great that it's dynamic if you want it to be. You can pin down selected sites and remove sites from your Top Sites page. It seems helpful and fun, but a true test will be if I continue to use it after two weeks. The star that appears when one of your Top Sites updates its contents. Nice!

- Tabs on Top. This is disorientating. After years of having tabs on the bottom with Firefox and Safari, they're suddenly on top.

On the whole, the newest Safari is slick and speedy. If you're not concerned about losing Safari 3, and you want to try out the latest browser technology, go ahead, enjoy the beta goodness of Safari 4.

Just remember, it's a beta.

Check out the 150 features in Safari 4.

Apple Introduces Safari 4 - Fast and Chock-full of New Features

Lisa Weddle — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:28:45 -0600

Apple announced the release of the public beta of Safari 4 today claiming that its “Nitro” engine runs JavaScript 4.2 times faster than its previous incarnation. More new features include: Top Sites, a way to stimulate internet overload by viewing your most frequently visited pages all at once; Full History Search, in which the user can search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages; Cover Flow, to flip through web history or bookmarks just like you’re used to in iTunes; and Tabs on Top, which makes managing tabs easier and your browser window that much larger.

“Apple created Safari to bring innovation, speed and open standards back into web browsers, and today it takes another big step forward,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

Indeed, Apple claims that the new Nitro JavaScript engine executes JavaScript up to 30 times faster than IE 7 and more than three times faster than Firefox 3. Similarly, Safari 4 is said to load HTML web pages three times faster than IE 7 and almost three times faster than Firefox 3.

Safari 4 also includes HTML 5 support for offline technologies so web-based applications can store information locally without an Internet connection, and is the first browser to support advanced CSS Effects that enable highly polished web graphics using reflections, gradients and precision masks.

Safari for Mac, Windows, iPhone and iPod touch are all built on Apple’s WebKit, which the company calls “the world’s fastest and most advanced browser engine”. Apple developed WebKit as an open source project to create the world’s best browser engine and to advance the adoption of modern web standards. Most recently, WebKit led the introduction of HTML 5 and CSS 3 web standards and is known for its fast, modern code-base. The industry’s newest browsers are based on WebKit including Google Chrome, the Google Android browser, the Nokia Series 60 browser and Palm webOS.

New features in Safari 4:

- Top Sites, a display of frequently visited pages in a stunning wall of previews so users can jump to their favorite sites with a single click

- Full History Search, where users search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages to easily return to sites they’ve seen before

- Cover Flow, to make searching web history or bookmarks as fun and easy as paging through album art in iTunes

- Tabs on Top, for better tabbed browsing with easy drag-and-drop tab management tools and an intuitive button for opening new ones

- Smart Address Field, that automatically completes web addresses by displaying an easy-to-read list of suggestions from Top Sites, bookmarks and browsing history

-Smart Search Field, where users fine-tune searches with recommendations from Google Suggest or a list of recent searches

- Full Page Zoom, for a closer look at any website without degrading the quality of the site’s layout and text

- Built-in web developer tools to debug, tweak and optimize a website for peak performance and compatibility

- New Windows-native look in Safari for Windows, that uses standard Windows font rendering and native title bar, borders and toolbars so Safari fits the look and feel of other Windows XP and Windows Vista applications

Firefox Getting Multi-Touch Gestures?

David W. Martin — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:20:25 -0500

According to a post on Edward Lee's blog, Firefox may be getting multi-touch gestures in one of it's future releases. Edward recently upgraded to a new MacBook. However, much to his dismay, his new notebook with the fancy glass trackpad and all those gestures would not work in his favorite browser - Firefox. So not to be discouraged, he sought to submit some bug reports to Mozilla and discovered that some of these had already been submitted and even resolved - months ago in fact. Reports were filed for Camino and Firefox. So where the heck are these changes?

We downloaded the current official 3.1 beta version of Firefox from Mozilla. Nope, no multi-touch gestures there. Fortunately, there is a beta version of Firefox that does support multi-touch. if you are interested in trying a version out the multi-touch Firefox you can download the beta browser here.

Give it a try if your interested, but like all Beta software, you should try it on a machine that you do not rely on for daily use. It's a good example of the future possible uses for multi-touch. Hopefully, the developers of Firefox will activate or add these features to a future official Firefox release. Hopefully, other developers will follow suit and we'll all be swiping tapping and multi-touching the day away.