Archive for: browser
Everyday I have about 30 people start following Crenk on Twitter, but today I had a very interesting company show up. Tweetreplies is a new startup which sends twitter replies to your email address. I know there has been a lot of talk about this specific type of Twitter startup in the last week or so, especially with Twply.com. Unlike Twply (which sold for $1200 a few days after launching), Tweetreplies doesn’t require your Twitter username and password to actually operate. There are a lot people out there that have been talking about giving out their Twitter passwords to third party sites, so this is a great way to have a tool and not give up your password.
When
Flock was launched last fall, it was the browser geared towards the social network savvy surfer. It was a new way to integrate all the most popular social sites and keep them at your finger tips while doing your standard day to day browsing online. No longer were you forced to open tab after tab, window after window for each network you wanted to connect with. Now, with some minor prep time by inputting accounts and passwords, Flock will keep everything on file and load all of your chosen networks as soon as you start your browser.
Flock has just released the latest version of its broswer software, and already it’s looking like the browser to beat. When Google release Chrome, it was a mad dash by early adopters to test out this mysterious new entry into the browser wars. The excitement lost steam pretty quickly as users were left wondering exactly what the purpose of Chrome was because the bells and whistles were just not there. The browser that was meant to be used not seen seemed to be the mantra. Flock flies directly in the face of such philosophy by making sure every aspect of the user interface is useful and interactive.
The new release integrates Media RSS which can now keep the most watch media on the front page of your start window for immediate viewing; pics, movies, podcasts, all accessible with a click of a button. New to the social network offerings is
MySpace, which has finally been brought into the fold, allowing users to chat with their friends directly from the sidebar without having to visit the actual site.
Since it’s founding 3 years ago, and with the first release this past fall, Flock has attracted 6 million downloads. A true testament in its efforts to get attention from users. Having been built on Firefox’s code, similarities are welcoming with a taste and flavor all its own.
As Mashable has reported this morning, Joost has now moved to a web based version. If you don’t know what Joost is, it is basically a television streaming service but without the ads. There are hundred of channels to choose from and you are able to watch programs straight in your browser.
Joost has channels in a variety of sectors, old television programs, sports, news, music videos and more. It is totally free to watch and can be viewed from any country in the world, unlike Hulu.
When you head over to the site all you need to do is register and then download the plugin that launches the application within your browser, and thats it.
Last week I gave a first 5-minute impression of Google Chrome, the new browser that is supposed to be faster and better than anything else out there. A week later and what seems to be a hundred thousand reviews in the blogsphere later, everyone seems to like it, and no one seems to be using it. Less than 1% of Crenk readers are using it, more people are using Opera belive it or not.
What’s so great about it? Well it’s new and shiny, has a minimalist look and feel to it and consumes about 75% less memory than Firefox does, at least for me on my Windows XP box. Google really seems to have done their homework with regards to chewing up your CPU cycles and there appears to never be a memory leak. Additionally, you just need to type something in what used to be known as the address bar, as it now functions as a search bar and many other things. It’s also fast, but how fast? My seat dyno says slightly faster than Firefox, but to a normal user, it might only feel faster because it’s new.
What’s not so great about it? Well first and foremost, Windows only. As a Mac user, I once again feel like someone put me out in the cold. Lack of any add-ons that I’ve come to love with Firefox is also missing, but if you were coming from Internet Explorer you wouldn’t know what I’m talking about anyway. Dedicated search box is something I miss. Why you ask, since Google answers all questions on it’s own? Because it simply doesn’t. I’ve been using a Firefox add-on called OpenSearchFox for more than a year now; it allows you to add a drop down in Firefox to search any site that has search enabled on it. That means, rather than going to say Netflix and then searching, I can select Netflix from my drop down menu in the search bar and type in my query there. My other gripe is the lack of a status bar. I understand how important screen real estate is, but I like it, I’ve been using the status bar for more than 10 years in browsers, I’m used to it. Lastly, Chrome doesn’t work with all websites yet. One site that I order digital photos from requires a Java plugin, to upload the photos. I have the plugin installed in Windows but the browser doesn’t pick it up. I’m sure small kinks like this will iron themselves out but it’s still an inconvenience.
One of the most interesting Easter eggs is kind of a joke in Chrome. In the address bar type about:internets – then sit back and chuckle, at least someone around the Google camp has a sense of humor. Chrome is interesting, but it’s not a killer app for me yet, nor do I plan on switching. For now, I will use it to beta test website design and other various things on the Internet but Firefox will continue to be my primary browser.
Yesterday Google’s new browser, Chrome was announced so today I downloaded and installed it onto my work Windows XP box to see what all the fuss is about and check for cross compatibility on sites we work on. I spent about 5 minutes poking around, if I can’t figure out how to use a browser in 5 minutes, it’s too complicated for anyone but the most 733t 1337.
Download was very small; it then opens an applet and downloads the rest of the software. Installation requires Firefox to be shut down so Chrome can import all your bookmarks, favorites, history and passwords; this goes quickly and rather painlessly. Next you get a TOS about reporting options for crashes, I denied their request and the install was complete.
Upon launching Chrome for the first time an unusual question is asked, “Do you wish to keep Google as your default search engine?” It’s unusual in that, it’s a Google product and the first thing about this new killer app is to strip out Search, the one thing Google does very, very well. I selected to keep it.
All my bookmarks and history imported, what didn’t was my homepage. I’m a long time iGoogle user and rely on the RSS feeds to get me caught up quickly at a glance to what is going on with the sites I follow. Not there. Instead six white boxes stare at me. A little note tells you that these are your most visited sites. Nice idea, but not for me. I easily look at 50+ sites in six different tabs of iGoogle. There is no apparent way to set a traditional “homepage” only what Google wants you to see.
The other thing lacking is an option to show the status bar. I rely on the status bar while at work and home to see where any link will take my, by hovering over it. There are also several add-ons for Firefox that sit in my status bar that I’ve come to love, from what I can tell in Chrome, there is no status bar option.
On the plus side, it is fast. How fast? I don’t have scientific numbers or pretty pie charts, but it really feels fast. One site that I know uses a fairly common Java plugin to run an app wouldn’t work and there was no option to install it but everything else on the dozen or so sites I quickly browsed seem to work.
Is Chrome the next killer app? Hard to say now, Firefox has such a loyal, loving fan base to it, but I think this could compliment it very well.
Google to launch a web browser today to 100 countries, and it will be named Google Chrome. There is a lot of buzz already about this new product and Im sure you have probably already read about it on Techcrunch, AllthingsD, Sizlopedia and more.All of this was just a rumour until it was confirmed by the Official Google Blog.
For a long time now there have only really been 3 key players in the online browser market, IE, Firefox and Safari (MACs). I’m very interested to use this product today and see how it compares to all these other browsers.
For a long time also Google has been funding Mozilla by paying to have their search engine as default in the browser, so if Google Chrome becomes popular and out grows Firefox, will they still pay top dollar to be the default search in Firefox?
By: Luis Sandoval
Okay, laugh if you must, roll your eyes at worst, but it did not take me all night to think of that title. How could I refuse, it was too easy!
So ATT has jumped into the browser market with Pogo, and their first foray into the fight, let’s just say that this browser will leave a sour taste in your mouth, if not a hole in the wall where you put your fist through in frustration. Let me at least point out that this browser is still in beta, and while not available to the public I am skeptical that much will change from what I see.
Here we go!
Installation: This browser is not for the faint of heart. Jokingly amongst my friends we stated that if you did not pay 2k for your computer or more than bow out and save yourself this frustration. A bit of an exaggeration perhaps, but this monster requires a 1.6GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, and a video card with at least 256MB of VRAM. Ladies and Gentleman, let me just say that even with the minimum you might be forced to destroy a small country in anger with how sluggish it can run. If you have more than the requirements good for you, enjoy the experience, but it seems a little steep just to run a browser don’t ya think?
Downloading is not as bad as the actual installation itself. The process is long and tedious and rather than just walking away, it will check your system, offer suggestions, and update if necessary. At some point it may say your system is not up to par, and if so you have the option to bow out, but why they would even allow you to click continue is beyond me. They have requirements for a reason, and if not taken seriously you will desperately wonder why you allowed that time in your life to be wasted…literally.
Interface: Now that you’ve had this monstrosity installed, let’s get to the meat and potatoes. For starters, Pogo thinks that it needs to be so different that icons and naming conventions should be entirely different to what users are expecting. Buttons are not easily recognizable in terms of functionality, and instead of tabs for the pages, they are called “cells.” Each of your “cells” is tabbed at the bottom instead of the top, and instead of a tab, you get a thumbnail version of the actual page you are on. WARNING: One or two “cells” might be okay, but anything over that really taxes your system’s resources.
You cannot import your bookmarks, from what I could tell. Perhaps it’s an option that I overlooked, but the bookmarks that I did make are instead viewed in a coverflow-like window that practically made my computer want to explode. The flow was sluggish and lagged at times that I almost wanted to just throw the computer out the window. Luckily, since there is a minor similarity to FireFox in terms of what’s behind the scenes, a quick button combination (Ctrl-I) puts the listing in textual format. While coverflow looked pretty it did nothing to enhance the experience for practical use.
Final Thoughts: I hope, I can only hope that ATT is still a long way off from finalizing this product. The size and it’s downfalls will sink this browser quickly. It’s a pretty web browser, that is a fact, but it’s not enough to save it. I personally would never use this browser for everyday use, especially in the state that it’s in. Again, this browser is in beta, but right now FireFox and all it’s plug-ins are find for me. With ease of use, easily recognizable features and buttons, and compatibility across the board for MAC and PC, I prefer to stick to what I know…for now.
Pogo was a no go for me. I uninstalled it and hope to never experience frustration like that again. Innovative yes, practical…nope!
Today is Firefox 3 Download Day and it is past the launch time of 10am PDT and still no download to be available. Im sure there are thousand if not millions of people trying to get this download at exactly the same time, but come on they had months to prepare for this!
I think I am just going to have wait until tomorrow my time to get the download and actually review it for everyone here.
Firefox 3 is coming on the 17th of June. So next Tuesday make sure you are online and actually downloading the new firefox. Seriously, it’s been a long time. 34 months of development, 5 betas and 2 RCs, that’s enough to make any user squirm with anticipation. If everything goes well, we’ll finally be able to wave memory leaks and instabilities goodbye. If not, we’ll be the first to complain, don’t worry.
Currently, I am already using the Firefox 3 RC2 and it is great. Im looking forward to seeing if they make any more major changes before they launch to the public. Remember if you want to download Firefox 3 RC 2 now then you can, all you have to do is head over here and download it. Im guessing that when they upgrade to the public Firefox 3 then the current users will just see a basic update appear.
Following on from the Firefox 3 RC1 post the other day, I thought I would write another article about Firefox Add-ons. Here is a list put together showing 7 Firefox add-ons to browse the web anonymously.
Anonymization Toolbar – This special tool will enable you to stay more anonymous while browsing the internet through Firefox. There are one click options that allow you to delete your browsing history, cache and cookies.
FoxTor – This program will help hide your computer behind different proxies, changing your IP address as you surf different websites on the internet.
FoxyProxy – Gives you complete control over the proxy configuration. Can be used to browse anonymously.
ProxySel – Add-on that allows you to choose a proxy from a drop down list and also to import proxies from proxy lists
BrowseAtWork – Add-on ideal for viewing webpages blocked by many corporate or school filters.
SwitchProxy - This add-on allows you to easily switch between proxy configurations and keep your surfing more anonymous.
Torbutton – Add-on for enabling and disabling Firefox’s use of Tor for safer surfing.
