If you're particularly attuned to tech gossip, you'll know that Google's Chrome OS announcement has prompted a lot of whispers about something called "Gazelle" being cooked up in Microsoft's labs. Part browser, part OS, the word on the street is that Gazelle will be announced soon, and ultimately compete in some way with either Chrome (the browser) or Chrome (the OS). As usual, most of this is just based on hopes and fairytales, but the scholarly folks at Ars Technica have done some digging and come up with a white paper from Microsoft Research that details some of what Gazelle is all about -- and surprise surprise, although it shares some similarities with Chrome, it's actually quite different.

At the most general level, Gazelle is an experiment in building an ultrasecure browser. Like Chrome, it breaks tasks up into different processes, but instead of separating at the page level, Gazelle breaks individual page elements into different processes, allowing content from different servers to be isolated and ultimately providing fine-grained security controls. To manage all these different processes, there's a central "kernel," which is where all the OS talk stems from -- it's all still running on Windows, and the rendering engine is still IE's Trident engine, but Gazelle manages all those separate processes independently, kind of like a virtualized OS. It's certainly interesting stuff, but it's still all just a research project for now -- Chrome OS is still vapor, but it's clear that Google intends to ship something, while Gazelle seems more suited to inspire future versions of IE. Still, it's interesting reading if you're into it, so hit the read link for more.

Read - Ars Technica analysis
Read - Microsoft Gazelle white paper [Warning: PDF]

[Image courtesy of Robert Scoble]

A day earlier than expected, Microsoft has launched its third edition of Silverlight and its SDK. As Ars Technica notes, some of the bigger improvements on the user side are GPU hardware acceleration and new codec support including H.264, AAC, and MPEG-4. If you're looking to give it a spin, there's a Smooth Streaming demo available that, as the name suggests, does a pretty good job of streaming HD video with little stutter, even when skipping around. If you've got Firefox 2, Internet Explorer 6, Safari 3 or anything fresher, hit up the read link to get the update.

[Via Ars Technica]

Read - Download Page
Read - Smooth Streaming demo

A few days after blocking PlayStation 3 users, Hulu has yet to respond to questions concerning the change which has only helped to fuel rumors it is related to the Microsoft ad campaign currently featured on the site, but that seems less likely now that we've confirmed it also began blocking the Flash-enabled Skyfire browser on Windows Mobile devices at the same time. Whatever the cause is, if you prefer a homegrown hack over something like PlayOn or TVersity, Eric over at ypass.net has put together a simple enough walkthrough for creating an "unblockable" workaround by setting up a locally connected PC running Linux or Windows with the freely available Squid proxy server software that will make your PS3 look like appear as a PC running a Firefox (or whatever you prefer) browser to any website that asks. Of course, just like the other solutions your computer will need to stay running to keep you connected, but we figure it's a small price to pay for enjoying relatively low res Flash video running on an HDTV.

Read - Got a PS3? Want Hulu Back? Easy enough...
Read - Squid-setup for Windows NT /2k /X

This one's been a long time coming but it looks like Dutch company SPRXmobile has launched the world's first Augmented Reality browser. Layar, as it's called, runs on Android and aggregates the data from the cellphone's compass and GPS coordinates to understand where you're standing and what you're looking at. A "radar view" then applies a visual information layer on top of the camera display as you pan around your environment. Content partnerships including a local bank, social networking site, and a realty company allows Layar to identify houses for sale, nearby ATMs, and local clubs and bars all laid out visually on your cellphone's display. Layar will be available this month in The Netherlands via the Android Market for phones such as the G1 and HTC Magic. It will launch in the US, Germany, and the UK sometime later this year with the iPhone 3G S listed as a primary target platform. Looks great with plenty of data populated in the video sample (posted after the break) but we have to wonder how well it works in day-to-day reality.

Update: As pointed out by a number of readers, calling this a world's first is a bit of stretch considering apps like Wikitude (a travel guide) and NRU. When pressed, SPRXmobile said they are a world's first AR browser platform.

Just in time for your weekend perusal, Palm Goon (which we half suspect might be a viral site from Palm itself) has uploaded three tours and a FAQ chock-full of new Pre / webOS screens and details, chief among them being confirmation that the Pre does daily automatic backup. We've also got some pretty thorough glimpses of the web browser, Tasks, and Memo applications. Visually, it's quite a beaut -- a very elegant and classy UI that rivals anything we've seen from a certain Cupertino-based company. Of course, functionality remains to be seen, but if Palm and Sprint deliver half as good of a game as they talk, looks like we're in for a real treat.

Update: Looks like the site's experiencing intermittent server errors. Hang tight, we'll keep you updated.

Read - Meet the Web Browser
Read - Meet the "Memos" app
Read - Meet the "Tasks" app
Read - Things You Might Not Know...

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Browsers have arguably become more important than the underlying OS in the modern, connected world. So take note when Microsoft announces an update to the Web-dominating software favored by your IT department. When the clock strikes 12:00 noon in New York, Microsoft says it'll release its much anticipated Internet Explorer 8 software to the world. Out of beta, Steve Ballmer claims that IE 8, "gets people to the information they need, fast, and provides protection that no other browser can match." Time will tell, eh hax0rs?

Read -- press release
Read -- download link (active at 12:00 EST)

As it stands, the best shot you have at a "full" web browsing experiencing is with Apple's iPhone. Granted, Opera Mini ain't half bad, and Fennec (er, Mobile Firefox, holds a lot of promise, but it's hard to argue with the sheer performance numbers associated with Safari. That said, it looks like Cupertino has its work cut out for it upon the release of Palm's Pre. During a recent webcast, viewers were treated to a sneak peek at the Pre loading up Big12Sports.com. Said site is pretty intensive to load, and even on WiFi it takes well over 20 seconds to completely pull up on Apple's darling. The site took around eight seconds to finalize on the Pre, suggesting that it either has a wicked fast browser or caching abilities, both of which we could learn to appreciate. Hit the read link for a peek at the video, because -- you know -- seeing is believing.

[Thanks, Jacob]

Software vulnerabilities are no stranger to modern, highly-connected smartphones and feature phones alike, and fortunately, the big guys have been pretty good about staying on the ball and patching the serious stuff in a reasonable amount of time. The latest problem discovered in the Android browser's multimedia subsystem really sucks, though -- it's so bad, some security dudes are advising customers to "avoid" using the it altogether until it gets fixed -- and the most frustrating part about it is that it actually is fixed in the Android code trunk, it's just that no one's bothered to roll out an update to G1 users yet. In the meantime, the dude who discovered the problem is advising users to only visit trusted sites and avoid WiFi, so yeah, just don't browse or anything, okay?

[Via ReadWriteWeb]

Okay, so maybe a new browser isn't the first thing we'd like to see replaced with some fresh thinking out of the App Store -- that honor probably goes to the email client, preferably with something that could rival the G1's capabilities -- but regardless, Apple's infamous "duplication of functionality" argument has hamstrung iPhone developers from even coming close to stepping on the mothership's toes from day one. Consistent application of policy is still at a premium when it comes to getting iPhone apps approved, it seems -- it's hit or miss, and as best as we can tell, a happy ending involves the crossing of fingers and getting a reviewer inside Apple who's having a good day. It looks like Apple's slowly and quietly tweaking its game in response to complaints, though, with MacRumors noting that a slew of browsers have gone on sale in the past day; some of these things have submission dates several months old, so it seems like they've been holding in some sort of purgatory while Steve and the gang debate the merits of letting programmers actually practice their trade in peace. Odds are none of these initial entries will hold up to Safari for good, old-fashioned browsing, but more importantly, this might just open up the door for Opera and others to get in on the game.

Update: As it turns out, all these new browsers are WebKit-based, so while things do appear to be changing, we wouldn't hold out hope for an iPhone edition of Mobile IE just yet.

There's already been a G1 firmware pushed out to patch up a browser security issue, but you know how it goes with those -- two flaws seem to magically sprout up in place of every one that's snuffed out. It's unclear exactly what's going on here, but some G1 users are reporting that attempting to visit Yahoo!'s home page is intermittently redirecting them to a totally legit-looking page imploring them to download some bogus Microsoft AntiSpyware crap -- and while we're thinking that this fake site was intended to target slightly larger computers of the Windows variety, it's disturbing that this redirect somehow managed to filter down to Android. It could be a DNS hack or a problem with T-Mobile's proxies, in which case the G1's own defenses are absolved for the time being, but that's not much comfort for Joe Yahoo-User, now is it?

[Via Android Community, thanks Dooosthy]

As the root of our name implies, desktop browsers aren't really our thing in Engadget-land. Still, we're pretty sure that you've managed to learn about Google's new Chrome browser even without our assistance. However, when we hear Google's co-founder, Sergey Brin discussing Chrome on Android, well, we're all in. Even though neither has been released out of beta yet, Brin said that the Webkit-based Chrome browser is expected to soon supplant the Webkit-based browser in Android. "Probably a subsequent version of Android is going to pick up a lot of the Chrome stack," Brin said before adding, "My guess is we'll have 'Chrome-like' or something similar," when asked about the brand name. While we have lingering doubts about the likely stability of the initial 1.0 Android OS release, version 2.0 with Chrome is likely to be killer in every sense of the word to Symbian Nokia, Microsoft, and Apple. Of course, we'll be first in line for the HTC Dream regardless.

[Thanks, Coral]

We've been waiting for this day ever since Opera first announced its Opera Mobile 9.5 web browser back in February. Today, it's out for a beta 1 launch. In other words, it'll be buggy but likely far more useful than the browser already installed on your touchscreen-based (PocketPC) WinMo professional phone. The initial release includes support for double-tap zoom, landscape flip, off-line page save, tab-like browsing, auto-URL complete, and a Google-search bar to name just a few of the 9.5 features. More functionality will be added later including Google Gears and support for Flash video on WinMo and Symbian devices. CNET already has the hands-on video review up for your pickings. Better yet, download and install for yourself and tell us what you think in the comments below.

Update: PhoneArena has chimed-in with a video hands-on of its own. Check it after the break.

Read -- Opera Mobile 9.5 beta 1
Read -- CNET first look