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iOS surpasses Linux as browsing platform
Seems like only yesterday that Linux was vastly outpacing iOS in terms of how many were using it as a browsing platform. Actually, make that last November; at that time, Linux's presence more than doubled the total iOS stake. Now, iOS-based browsers claim 1.13 percent of all browsing platforms, compared to a declining 0.85 percent for Linux. To the right is a screengrab from Google Analytics, as I see traffic coming to one of my own websites. However, I'm sure the list looks very different depending on the content. For example, I'm pretty sure TUAW's #1 OS isn't any flavor of Windows (but I'll check). How long before the total of all mobile-only OS clients outranks desktop OS users in this area? [via AppleInsider]
Royalty-free H.264 is a big win for HTML5, big loss for Flash
Update: Mozilla responds, saying that by 2014 (when the original fee-free license for H.264 would have expired) chances are the codec won't be relevant anymore. So far, one of the main arguments against widespread implementation of HTML5 video has been the uncertain licensing future of the H.264 standard. Proponents of Flash video and organizations committed to license-free software, like the Mozilla foundation, said that while H.264 was currently royalty-free (and would remain so until 2015), there was no guarantee that MPEG LA wouldn't start charging licensing fees later on. In that event, if HTML5 had supplanted Flash as the de facto standard for video on the web, it would have meant that organizations and possibly even end users would have found themselves saddled with onerous fees after 2015. That theoretical stumbling block has disappeared. MPEG LA has announced that H.264 will be royalty-free forever so long as video encoded with the standard is free to end users. This means sites like YouTube and vimeo will never be charged licensing fees to serve video on the web; presumably, it also means that Apple will continue to pay licensing fees to sell videos in the iTunes Store. Mozilla's Firefox browser doesn't currently support HTML5 video (via H.264, that is -Ed); the uncertainty of H.264's licensing future meant Mozilla wanted to stick with Ogg Theora, a video codec Mozilla believed would be unencumbered by patenting issues. With MPEG LA's announcement that H.264 will be royalty-free in perpetuity, it's likely only a matter of time before Firefox joins browsers like Safari, Chrome, and Internet Explorer 9 in fully supporting HTML5. This is good news for almost everyone except Adobe. Adobe's main argument against moving away from the current Flash-dominated web video landscape to one with a truly open standard like HTML5 is now invalid. While Flash may continue to hold onto its grip on interactive web content, MPEG LA's announcement likely points to an end to Flash's dominance in video. This is also the last nail in the coffin for any possibility of Flash running in iOS -- with possibly the biggest obstacle to widespread implementation of HTML5 video now gone, there's zero incentive for Apple to hitch its wagon to Flash. [Via Macworld]
Opera 10.6 hits Windows, Mac and Linux with faster Javascript, WebM video support
Four short months after Opera 10.5, the Scandinavian potato boilers are back for more -- the latest version of their lightweight web browser features not only claims to be the fastest, but the first final browser with WebM video support. While we actually noticed a variety of web videos felt choppy with the Windows version, there's no denying it's a speedy little hummingbird; Engadget felt snappier on Opera than Chrome or Firefox by far. Don't take our word for it, though -- try it out for yourself at the source link.
Firefox 1.1 hits Maemo in final form, featuring Add-ons, Save to PDF and more
Two months after an impressive beta, Mozilla's finalized its first full mobile browser for Maemo -- beating iPhone, Android and most assuredly Windows Mobile versions to the punch. Though it doesn't seem to have gained any new features in the interim, what it does bring to the table is sweet indeed: portrait browsing, auto-updating add-ons and the ability to magically convert webpages to PDF right on your phone. If you have a Nokia N900 or N810, do your device a favor and download it right now; if not, you'll find a handy guide to your burning jealousy at our more coverage link.
Mozilla submits Firefox Home to Apple App Store, considers approval a formality (video)
Emboldened by the (great) success enjoyed by Opera's Mini in making it onto Apple's hallowed iPhone platform, Mozilla has today submitted its own browser implement to the App Store censors. We already knew Firefox Home -- a weird sort of incomplete browser that syncs your desktop bookmarks, history, and tabs with the iPhone -- was in the works, but now we're finding the team behind it is so confident of its approval that it's already promising a guide on how to set it up once it's approved. We suspect the fact it'll allow you to shift browsing sessions over to Safari will be looked upon favorably, but there's no escaping the fact that Firefox Home will still browse the web for you should you wish it. This is going to be a highly entertaining approval process indeed. Your move, Cupertino.
Chrome overtakes Safari for number three browser spot in the US sez StatCounter
StatCounter's issued a press release today which reports that Google's Chrome browser has overtaken Safari for third place in the United States on a weekly basis for the first time ever. Chrome nabbed the spot with an 8.97 percent share, following behind Internet Explorer with 52 percent and Firefox with 28.5 percent. Safari ranked fourth according to their stats with 8.88 percent. Globally Chrome has been in third place for some time, but this is the first time it's surpassed Safari in the United States. The statistics were compiled using data for the week of June 21st to June 27th. Full pr is below.
Mozilla bundles WebM support into nightly Firefox builds
Google's new web video standard seems to be gathering a bit of momentum, as today Firefox is following in the ultrafast steps of Chrome by offering built-in support for WebM video. Bugs are still being worked out, but the fundamentals are there, and we'll hopefully see all kinks ironed out in time for the release of Firefox 4 Beta, which is expected to land later this month. This is now the third big browser to announce compatibility, with Microsoft already promising it for IE 9, provided users download the necessary VP8 codec first. The HTML5-obsessed Apple hasn't yet decided which way it's going with the standard while Opera is presumably busy figuring out how to parody the whole thing in video form.
How to re-enable Netflix in Safari 5 (updated)
We're getting a ton of tips about Netflix being broken in Safari 5, and while we're pretty sure Reed Hastings and crew will have things patched up in the morning, we thought we'd share the quick fix with you now, since it's so simple. The problem isn't actually Safari 5, it's the browser agent string -- Netflix doesn't recognize it as a supported browser, so all you have to do is turn on the developer menu and change Safari's user agent back to 4.1. Ready? It's just a couple steps: Open Preferences > Advanced and click "Show Develop menu in menu bar". In the Develop menu, select User Agent and hit "Safari 4.1". Watch some Netflix! Of course, you'll have to switch it back to use any Safari 5-optimized sites that check for the latest version of Apple's browser, but that's not too hard -- and like we said, we're guessing the Netflix crew will have this sorted in no time, so you shouldn't need to worry about this in the future. Update: Told you they'd get it fixed soon enough -- reader Colin tells us things are working fine with Safari 5 as of this morning.
Safari 5 to join Steve onstage Monday for WWDC?
According to a report from French blog MacGeneration, one of the announcements on tap for Monday's WWDC 2010 keynote (which we'll be covering live, by the way) is a major update for Safari -- namely, version 5. If you believe the docs the site has obtained, there are more than a few big changes coming, including Bing now alongside Yahoo! and Google search options, a new "Safari Reader" for better / easier RSS reading (we're hoping they're taking a cue from Google on this), 25 percent faster JavaScript performance and DNS prefetching (hello, Chrome), improved HTML5 support (no big surprise there), and new developer tools which we assume will be along the lines of Firebug or Chrome's developer helpers. So we hope. The update will allegedly also add hardware acceleration for Windows PCs, an address field that auto-predicts URLs (they're calling it a "Smart Address Field"), and a handful of other minor tweaks and snips. Furthermore, there's an expected minor bump to Snow Leopard (10.6.4) which will resolve some nagging issues, though nothing really more than that. As we're sure you're aware, the next 48 hours or so are going to be filled with all sorts of nutty rumors about what's happening at Monday's keynote -- we'll try and separate the wheat from the chaff for you.
Opera parodies Google's Chrome speed tests mercilessly (video)
This, dear friends, is the height of comedy. Opera's pair of Scandinavian browser testers are back, this time applying some extremely high-tech speed tests to determine whether the Norwegian browser is faster than boiling a potato. Seriously, if you're not laughing at this, you either work for Google or you have a funny bone missing. In more concrete news, the acceptance of Opera Mini to the iPhone has accounted for a cool 70 percent of the Mini's growth over the month of April, with 2.6 million Apple users downloading the software worldwide. But that's not what you're here for, you're here to see the epic video, which awaits after the break along with Google's original. [Thanks, Ian G.]
Mozilla shares tentative vision for Firefox 4
Our first glimpse of Firefox 4 was limited to a few tasteful mockups; this time, Mozilla's main man Mike Beltzner has revealed the company's plans for its next generation web browser in its entirety. While exact features and dates are sketchy, his presentation reveals Mozilla would like to hold the Firefox 4 beta in June, before unleashing a CSS3, partially HTML5 compliant web browser with multitouch support, background updates, geolocation, Firefox Sync (aka Mozilla Weave) and a greatly streamlined UI this holiday season. The presentation has "PLANS MIGHT CHANGE" written all over it in large red letters, so trust us when we say none of this is for sure, but we like the direction Firefox is going and we'll be happy to see more. Video presentation at our source link, full slideshow after the break.
Internet Explorer market share falls below 60 percent for first time, according to NetApplications
NetApplications has just released its browser market share stats for the month of April, and there is something notable here: Internet Explorer has fallen to a "historic low" of 59.95 percent market share, losing about 0.69 points since last month. Google's Chrome continues its assault on Safari, reaching a 6.73 percent share (while Safari nabbed 4.72). Of course, Internet Explorer is still so far ahead of the rest of the pack it's hard to make these losses -- however significant -- into a tragedy of epic proportions story for Microsoft, so we're not going to do that. Keep in mind, as well, that NetApplications is not the only measurement of market share -- and StatCounter, by comparison, currently estimates IE's share at about 51.42 percent. Hit up the source link for the full battery of data.
Microsoft weighs in: 'the future of the web is HTML5'
Where Steve Jobs leads, Microsoft follows -- how's that for shaking up the hornet's nest? It's said in jest, of course, but we've just come across a post from the General Manager for Internet Explorer, Dean Hachamovitch, and the perspective expressed by him on the subject of web content delivery broadly agrees with the essay penned by Jobs yesterday on the very same subject. Echoing the Apple CEO's words, Hachamovitch describes HTML5 as "the future of the web," praising it for allowing content to be played without the need for plug-ins and with native hardware acceleration (in both Windows 7 and Mac OS X). He goes on to identify H.264 as the best video codec for the job -- so much so that it'll be the only one supported in IE9's HTML5 implementation -- before turning to the dreaded subject of Flash. This is where it gets good, because he literally repeats one of Jobs' six pillars of Flash hate: "reliability, security, and performance" are not as good as Microsoft would like them. Where Hachamovitch diverges from Apple's messiah, however, is in describing Flash as an important part of "a good consumer experience on today's web," primarily because it's difficult for the typical consumer to access Flash-free content. Still, it's got to be depressing for Adobe's crew when the best thing either of the two biggest players in tech has to say about your wares is that they're ubiquitous. Wonder how Shantanu Narayen is gonna try and spin this one. P.S. : it's notable that in multiple paragraphs of discussing "the future," Microsoft's IE general fails to once mention the fabled Silverlight, itself a rich media browser plug-in. Given Silverlight's featured role in the Windows Phone 7 infrastructure and other things like Netflix, we doubt it's on the outs, but there are sure to be some sour faces greeting Hachamovitch this morning. [Thanks, KnifeX4]
Firefox Lorentz beta doesn't crash entirely when plug-ins get fussy
Admit it, your love for Firefox is tempered by sometimes sluggish performance and a penchant for perennial plugin crashes. Google did what it could with Chrome to isolate such issues by ensuring the entire browser didn't crash when Flash (or any other add-on, for that matter) went belly up. Now it looks like the gang at Mozilla are adopting a similar tactic, and if you want to try it out for yourself, the Lorentz beta is now available for download. So sayeth the site, "If a plugin crashes or freezes, it will not affect the rest of Firefox. You will be able to reload the page to restart the plugin and try again." Whodathunk we'd ever feel actual elation at such a proclamation?
Chrome brings Flash Player into the fold, trains it to kill iPads?
If Apple had its way, we expect that the iPad would go down in history as the device that nearly single-handedly destroyed Adobe's empire of Flash. While HTML5 has been in development for years, content providers like the Wall Street Journal, NPR, CBS and more have only begun transitioning video services to the new standard (and subsequently, away from Flash) now that it's time for Cupertino's big release. But this week, Adobe has found an ally in Google, which has just announced that the Chrome browser -- and more importantly, Chrome OS -- will not merely support but natively integrate the technology. In the short run, what this means is that the Chrome browser won't require you to download Adobe Flash Player or spend time updating it before back-to-back YouTube viewings and marathon Newgrounds sessions. In the long run, Google explains that it intends Flash to become an integral, seamless part of web design up there with HTML and Javascript -- and if we extrapolate, an integral part of its new Chrome OS as well. Pardon us for thinking out loud, but it sounds like Google's found an exclusive feature to highly tout, when it inevitably brings a Chrome OS tablet to market. [Thanks, Adam]
Microsoft shows off Internet Explorer 9: says 'yes' to HTML5, 'no' to Windows XP
Microsoft is having a good old time at MIX10, showing off all sorts of new things. New things like... Internet Explorer 9, which has just been previewed at the developer event, and here's what we've gleaned about it so far. First off, as expected it will support HTML5 video, boast a new Microsoft JavaScript engine which is codenamed "Chakra," and it'll support new-fangled web technologies like CSS3 and SVG2. Microsoft says one of its main goals with IE9 is to provide a faster browsing experience -- always good news -- though they don't have things cranked quite as high as the competition just yet (remember, this is still early). Preliminary ACID3 tests on the preview show the IE9 scores a 55/100, up from IE8's dismal 20/100 -- a huge leap forward no doubt, but still a far cry from the Chrome, Opera, and Safari scores of 100. In both PCMag's and ZDNet's SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark test, the preview performed competitively as well. Microsoft has also confirmed that IE9 will not support Windows XP, but the preview Microsoft is showing off plays nice with Vista SP2 and higher, meaning the shipping version will probably do the same. No shockers there, really. Microsoft's also made the first developer preview of Internet Explorer 9 available for download today -- hit the source link to check that out. Full press release is after the break. Update: Chrome, Opera, and Safari do indeed score 100/100 in ACID3 testing, not "nearly" as previously stated. Thanks commenters for pointing out the obvious.
ClickToFlash 1.6b7 solves YouTube's "Old Flash? Go upgrade!" message
If you have ClickToFlash installed, you may have seen a note telling you that you have an old version of Flash and encouraging you to upgrade. As you might expect, you don't need to upgrade Flash, but you do need to upgrade ClickToFlash. The current version is ClickToFlash-1.6b7-upload1.zip, but you may have go to the Github page for ClickToFlash to download it. Jonathan Rentzsch explained that he hasn't been able to update it himself due to illness. However, given that it is open-source, four others (identified as ndfred, Justin, ssp and lapcat) identified the problem and a solution, and Rentzsch merged it back into the main branch of the code. That's pretty awesome, if you ask me. So if you've run into this problem at YouTube, take a few minutes, download the new version, quit Safari, and run the installer. Voilà!
Windows 7's European browser ballot screen revealed, rolling out next week
Microsoft is putting the finishing touches to the famed "browser choice screen" that the European Commission forced it to include as part of its antitrust investigation settlement, and today we get to see it for the first time. Users who have Internet Explorer as their default browser (meaning none of the savvy Engadget readers) will be alerted that there is "an important choice to make" and directed to the above decision making assistant. We actually think the randomized order of the top five browsers makes a ton of sense, and would express some cautious optimism that the ballot screen could really do its job of informing people of the alternatives out there. Users in the UK, Belgium and France will get to try it out next week, and a phased rollout will begin across Europe on March 1.
Firefox 3.6 now available
Head on over to Getfirefox.com, Firefox fans. Version 3.6 of your favorite browser is now ready. The video explains the major changes in this version, but here are the highlights. One-click themes. Using the Personas Gallery, you can assign a new look and theme to Firefox with a click. The way it works couldn't be simpler. Roll over any theme to preview it and click to commit. I found most of them annoying, but I'm old and crotchety. Out-of-date plugin warnings. This super-handy feature lets you know when you've got an out-of-date and potentially virus-friendly plugin installed and provides an update link. Speed! This version promises improved speed with javascript, rendering and startup. There's more, of course, so watch the video above. Or better yet, grab a copy and start playing. In my extremely limited testing, content heavy pages did seem to load quicker (I typically visit StarWars.com), and all of my plugins continued to work. If you experience any issues or have a plugin that refuses to work, please let us (and your fellow Firefox users) know. The Mac beta became available last year on Halloween (spooky) and the final release candidate dropped on January 11, 2009.
Internet Explorer losing users as other browsers set share records
In the last quarter, Chrome, Safari and Opera all set new personal bests for browser market share with 4.63, 4.46 and 2.4 percent respectively. This period marks the first time Chrome has beaten Safari to third spot, while their collective prosperity comes at the expense of IE, which continues to hemorrhage users at a rate of 0.92 percentage points a month. Microsoft's 62.7 percent slice might still look mighty, but projections from Net Applications suggest it could shrink to below 50 percent by May of this year. Unless something magical happens. You'll probably also want to know that Net Applications monitors incoming traffic to over 40,000 websites and generates a sample size of about 160 million unique visitors each month -- making the veracity of its claims pretty robust. One hidden sign of our collective laziness: 21 percent of all users last quarter were still fulfilling their browsing needs with IE 6. For shame.
