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Opera hits 300M users, will transition to WebKit this year
Opera, the web browser available for Mac, iOS, PC and Andriod, has reached 300 million monthly users, the company has announced in a press release. Opera Software ASA also notes that the Opera web browser will be transitioning to the WebKit engine in future versions, taking advantage of the performance and standards WebKit has to offer. CTO of Opera Software, Håkon Wium Lie, said, "It makes more sense to have our experts working with the open-source communities to further improve WebKit and Chromium, rather than developing our own rendering engine further. Opera will contribute to the WebKit and Chromium projects, and we have already submitted our first set of patches: to improve multi-column layout." Wium Lie continued, "The shift to WebKit means more of our resources can be dedicated to developing new features and the user-friendly solutions that can be expected from a company that invented so many of the features that are today being used by everyone in the browser industry." He also briefly addressed Opera Ice -- an unreleased, gesture-based Opera browser -- as a research and development project, and that more will information will be provided in the future. Transitioning to WebKit will bring noticeable performance and speed enhancements to the Opera browser, which has been sidelined by the likes of Safari and Chrome, which both utilize WebKit, and Mozilla Firefox, which utilizes Gecko.
iOS 6: Safari and iCloud Tabs
With iOS 6, Safari gets two features that competing mobile browsers have boasted for some time: tab syncing across multiple devices and a fullscreen viewing mode on the iPhone. iCloud tab syncing is a deceptively simple but powerful feature that integrates the browsing experience across multiple devices. Any iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running iOS 6 and any Mac running OS X Mountain Lion will, if connected to the internet and your iCloud account, sync any open tabs across all of your devices. iCloud Tab syncing between Macs has been possible since Mountain Lion's debut; iOS 6 brings this feature to Apple's handheld devices. This means the days of emailing links between devices or simply trying to remember what that one website was you were viewing on your iPad in the bathroom when you're sitting at your Mac in the living room are now over. Any tabs open on any device can be viewed on any other device. This does of course raise some red flags if you prefer to keep your browsing as private as possible. With a little patience, anyone with access to one of your devices could easily see what you're up to in your browsing session on another computer. Enabling Private Browsing on any device stops its Safari tabs from syncing as long as Private Browsing is enabled. You can also disable iCloud tab syncing altogether by turning off Safari syncing in Settings. On the iPhone, while using Mobile Safari in landscape mode you can toggle a fullscreen mode via a touch control in the lower right of the screen. Once toggled, the URL/search bar at the top and the toolbar at the bottom will slide aside, presenting far more actual content on the screen. Simple hover buttons for forward/back will still show up, as will the fullscreen toggle. As far as new features go for Safari in iOS 6, that's basically it. Reading List has a new offline reading mode similar to what Instapaper's offered for years, Safari gets the same simplified sharing button interface that's in the rest of iOS, and switching between Bookmarks, History, and Reading List is slightly easier on the iPad now thanks to a minor interface tweak. Safari in iOS 6 still doesn't feel like it takes full advantage of the capabilities of the devices' multitouch screens. It seems strange that multitouch gestures I take for granted on the Mac, like two-finger swipes to go forward/back or pinching out to see a tab switcher, don't work on my iPhone or iPad. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I think gestures like those definitely have a place on Apple's touchscreen devices. Fullscreen mode on the iPhone
IFTTT Recipes: Post to App.net
IFTTT Recipes is a new recurring column featuring recipes developed using IFTTT.com and their favorite IFTTT channels. Come see what TUAW bloggers cook up in the IFTTT labs! Wouldn't you like to post (tweet?) to App.net from the Twitter client you already love with no extra effort? IFTTT works that magic for you. App.net is a young, Twitter-like service. It's funded entirely by annual memberships, which is appealing to many who dislike intrusive advertising like sponsored tweets or Twitter's newly restrictive rules for developers. Since it's still in active development (alpha access is being slowly rolled out to early adopters), there's not much support by way of fully formed apps for iOS and OS X. I dislike posting from a browser, so I've been ignoring App.net for the time being. However, IFTTT's recently-added App.net support lets me contribute with the Twitter apps I already use. Here's how to build this recipe. First, enable both the Twitter channel and the App.net channel (provided that you're in on the alpha). Then follow these steps: Choose "New tweets by you" as the trigger. Optionally include mentions and retweets. Choose App.net as the action, then "Post an update." Fiddle with the ingredients to you liking (I accepted the default). Click "Create action," give it a name and finally click "Create recipe." You're done! Now tweets composed and shared with your favorite Twitter client will appear in your App.net stream. You'll have to go over there to monitor replies, etc., but this takes care of the posting. Enjoy!
Why Google Drive matters but APIs matter more
Today, Google Drive finally made its debut, offering what has become the industry-standard 5GB of free space. Its purchase model is similar to Apple's, Amazon's, and other leaders in this field. We posted earlier about its introduction. Expect to pay US$48/year for 20GB. This is $4/month versus iCloud's $40/year for 20GB. Drive supports accounts up to 16TB. Google Docs storage does not count against your Drive, and retains is super-economical pricing. You can pick up 20GB of Docs for $5/year, 80 GB for $20/year, etc. As expected, Drive uses a high level of encryption, using SSL (hopefully Google will resist the temptation to index your personal files) with a 99.9% uptime guarantee, massive simultaneous data replication in geographically dispersed centers and 24/7 "support (This is Google, however, so keep your expectations in line with that basic fact.). In other words, it's what we've come to expect from the cloud storage industry. But when it comes to cloud, success lies far less in centralized storage and more in the ubiquity of data access. When I put a document into my Dropbox, I know that I'll be able retrieve, read, edit and update that from nearly any platform I use. From Android to iOS, Mac to Windows, a large range of apps support the Dropbox APIs (I asked Dropbox for API and platform adoption numbers but did not hear back before this post went live). That's important because ubiquity doesn't mean "available on the cloud from select platforms and select applications." Ubiquity means "my data, right now." Google Docs APIs have made great inroads into this arena. Docs are nearly as available as Dropbox. iCloud, while available extensively through Apple's Mac and iOS platform is barely integrated into Windows (Apple did announce further API support intentions in the past), Android, webOS, etc. In my mixed-platform family, that's a big consideration for where I choose to spend my money. That's why Google's Drive API announcement on their less frequented developers site represents a key factor in this story. It's an OAuth-based system, similar to the Google Apps API (read "Docs"), and will grow and evolve as Docs did with the potential for a similar reach across platforms. It's a big, bad, wild west cloud-world out there. Nice to see Google step into the shootout.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me transfer documents
Dear Aunt TUAW, I am a college professor who has all my class prep work stored on USB drives. How may I transfer all these Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents to my iPad? I have the new updates for Numbers, Pages, and Keynote on my iPad 2. Please help an overworked teacher do a better job! Thank you! Your loving nephew, Larry Dear Larry, Larry, meet Dropbox. Dropbox, meet Larry. You're going to love each other. As far as moving documents from Office to the iPad apps, you're not going to do much better. Yes, there's iCloud, but Dropbox works on more platforms and with greater flexibility right now. You get 2GB by default, and can increase that by 250MB if an existing Dropbox user invites you with a referral They get an additional 250MB, too). The free plan goes up to 8GB after maxing out referral bonuses. The Dropbox app on iPad has an "open in" option, and you can just save stuff into your Dropbox folder on your home computer, editing as needed. What's more, by saving to Dropbox, you get automatic backup and access to your stuff from anywhere, plus the simplicity of opening files using built-in iOS features. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me de-install Pogoplug
Dear Aunt TUAW, My Pogoplug died several months ago. I haven't been using it since then. Today I discovered that it was still launching about a half dozen background processes, for example: 93 ?? 0:03.62 /Applications/Pogoplug/.resources/bin/hbwd /Applications/Pogoplug/.resources/bin/hbadmin. Help me stop these from launching. I don't have a Pogoplug anymore and I don't want it running stuff that I haven't agreed to. Thanks a bunch and here's some home-baked cookies for your pinochle night. Your loving nephew, Dan B. Dear Dan, The cookies were amazing! Who knew that you could make lace-pattered Werther's flavored shortbread? As for your Pogoplug dilemma, Auntie sympathizes. Apps should always provide uninstallers as part of their basic dmg release. Auntie contacted Smadar Artsi, the head of Pogoplug support to see if he could help uninstall the software. He sent along a script (which has been emailed to you directly) but asked that Auntie refrain from posting a public link to it. He writes, "I prefer this script not to become available to all – but through the support only on a request basis." So if any of Auntie's other nieces and nephews are facing a similar dilemma, go ahead and contact Pogoplug support directly. Hugs and poodles, Auntie T.
Oneshar.es: For those messages that need to stay secret
There are some things that you just don't want to send through regular email: your credit card number, your Social Security Number (if you live in the USA), and other messages that you really don't want anyone else to read. A new service and accompanying iPhone app, OneShar.es (US$0.99) provides a way to send encrypted top-secret information. Using the OneShar.es service is simple: you either go to the website or fire up the app, type in your message of up to 1000 characters, and a one-time URL is created. You send that URL to your recipient, and once they read the message, it can never be retrieved again. HTTPS encryption is used between the OneShar.es servers and the app (or your web browser) to keep your message encrypted in transit. OneShar.es says that "No service is 100% secure. However, we do take security extremely seriously." They also admit that Google Analytics is used on their site for web analytics, but "we, unfortunately, do not know who you are although we bet our users are rather great people." It's an interesting service and at $0.99 for the iPhone app (free to use in a browser), it's worth a try if you occasionally need to send sensitive information. [Via One Thing Well] %Gallery-149275%
Google brings Instant Previews to iOS 4.0+
Google announced on Tuesday that it added Instant Previews to its mobile search results. Originally a desktop feature, Instant Previews provides users with a glimpse of a website within the search results. It is extremely useful as it lets you see a page from a website without navigating to the site. You can use this feature to separate the wheat from the chaff without clicking on multiple links. The desktop version display the previews within the search page, but the mobile implementation takes a different approach. Rather than cram all the info on the search results page, Google has added a magnifying glass next to each search result. Clicking on the magnifying glass pops open a light-box style preview window that lets you view a snapshot of each result. You can swipe through these previews and click on the site you want to visit directly from this preview window. You can test this feature out for yourself using your mobile browser or watch it in action thanks to a Google-produced video available after the break. Instant Previews is compatible with Android 2.2+ handsets and iOS devices running iOS 4.0 or greater.
Twitter website adds inline App Store previews
Macgasm brings us word that Twitter has expanded the in-page previews on its website to include iOS App Store app details. Although originally designed to do inline previews of made-for-Twitter image services like yfrog and TwitPic, Twitter has been expanding the concept in recent months; it now includes Flickr images, YouTube videos and images from the insanely popular Instagram service. The preview for the App Store is quite detailed; as you can see, it includes the app icon, description and screenshot. If you haven't disabled iTunes opening automatically for web previews already, this might help prevent those annoying and unwanted "Aargh! Why is iTunes open now?" moments. Two notes about this feature: you'll only see the thumbnails on the "new Twitter" web interface. They don't work on the old site, nor do they work in any Twitter clients -- including the official ones for Mac OS X and iPad. Secondly, the previews seem to be only for iOS apps; for whatever reason, Mac App Store links don't preview.
Instapaper launches API with innovative business model
Popular iOS app and webservice Instapaper by formerly-of-tumblr Marco Arment today announced a new API offering access to content users have added to their Instapaper account. Instapaper (previous TUAW coverage) is a read-it-later type service born, as so many great apps are, of personal need. Arment would often come across long web posts he wanted to read at work, but at the same time was bored on a long train commute armed only with an iPhone and sketchy cell coverage. He wrote a quick service that would accept web pages from his browser and build a queue of them that he could download to the iPhone -- and he integrated a markup remover into the software that stripped away almost everything from the page except the content, for quicker syncing on 2G networks and easier reading on the iPhone's small screen. Instapaper was released shortly after the App Store itself and has grown solidly in features and reliability since then. The service has long offered a simple API to allow third-party apps to add content to a user's queue. This is what the "Instapaper" buttons in the various Twitter clients and suchlike use. However, up until now, there has been no supported way to allow apps other than Arment's own to pull data back out of the queue -- no alternative Instapaper readers. There are some like InstaFetch for Android that rely on hacks like scraping the Instapaper web page, but these are brittle and create support headaches for Arment. However, in offering a full API for third-party reader apps, he acknowledges he is placing his own revenue stream at risk. Presently, he pays for his hosting costs and supports future development through website ads, in-app ads in the free iOS client and a $3.99 premium client. An API undercuts his own business model. He's solved this problem with an unusual approach: the full API will only work for users paying $1/month for a subscription account. In this way, he hopes to create an ecosystem of third-party apps (presumably on platforms he doesn't have the ability to support himself) that use Instapaper without cutting his own business model off at the knees. Arment has also announced Stacks for Instapaper, the first third-party app to use this new API -- a full Instapaper client for Windows Phone 7. It remains to be seen how successful will be. It's quite possible that existing apps that use web scraping will continue to do so, rather than require their users to pay $1/month. Personally, I think it's a small price to pay for a compelling piece of software, so I hope there isn't an entitlement backlash.
Genieo now available for Mac, recognizes your favorite web content
Genieo is now available for the Mac with a unique approach to managing information overload. The developers are interested in a service that learns your preferred topics, your trusted sources and how you find and read information on the web. Genieo then presents you with content you're certain to like, without any scripting or filtering from you, the user. I spoke with Sol Tzvi, co-founder and CEO of Genieo at Macworld Expo, and she gave me a full run-down of this interesting solution. Genieo is a client-side solution (there are no servers involved) that relies on what Sol calls "Behavioral Plug-ins." When first run, it installs a plug-in for Safari, though all major Mac OS browsers are supported. From there, all you need to do is browse the Web as usual. As you do, Genieo's algorithm notes several things. Sol assured me that it looks at more than browsing history, but she wouldn't reveal the magic. Here's the rest of what I can tell you after the jump. %Gallery-115261%
Opera 11 for Mac debuts with tab stacking, gestures, extensions and more
Opera 11 for Mac is finally available with all sorts of cool features for you to play with, like "tab stacking," mouse gesture support and extensions. Here's an initial run-down of the major features available in Opera 11 for Mac. Tab stacking is pretty cool. I'm "one of those" people who typically has a huge number of tabs open at once. Opera reinforces my bad habit by allowing me to drag tabs on top of one another, creating a pop-up window of all the tabs in a stack. Each window displays a thumbnail of its pages' contents, and a click brings it forward. The mouse gestures will take some getting used to. Click the right mouse button to bring up the gesture UI, a large circle featuring icons for common functions, like back, forward, stop and open in a new tab. Not having used it, I'll guess that keyboard shortcuts are faster. Of course, I keep dozens of tabs open so what do I know? Extensions work as you'd expect, adding additional functionality to your browsing experience. There's more, of course, which you can read about here. We'll have a more detailed look at Opera 11 for Mac soon. Until then, check out the brief promo video after the break.
Mac 101: Changing the default web browser in OS X
Apple introduced the Safari browser in January of 2003. Since then, it's matured to include extensions, an RSS reader and even a Windows counterpart. Still, many users prefer another browser. Since Safari is set as the default on every new Mac, you'll have to make the switch manually. Otherwise, Safari will launch whenever a browser is called for (clicking a link in an email message, for example), instead of your preferred browser. Here's how to change that. First, launch Safari. From the Preferences menu, select General. At the top of the screen you'll see a drop-down labeled "Default Web Browser." Click it, hit Select and then navigate to your choice. That's it. From that point on, your Mac will use your selection as the default. If you're in the habit of switching back and forth between default browsers (for example, to test your website for different users), the $12 Choosy utility may give you the flexibility you need.
TiVo announces iPad app to control TiVo box
If you're like most iPad users, then you probably surf the web and check out IMDB with your iPad while watching anything that might be showing on the television. TiVo knows this, embraces this, and wishes to support this. They want to make the experience between your television and your iPad even closer. TiVo announced Monday a new, upcoming iPad app that will let you use many features of the TiVo service all on your iPad, without ever interrupting what's happening on your larger television screen. The TiVo iPad application will allow you to browse TiVo's program guide, schedule recordings, remotely control your TiVo unit, and browse your library of recorded shows. Additionally, the app will search both broadcast TV and premium services like Netflix, let you check out the cast and crew information of any shows you're watching, as well as schedule shows to be recorded while you're on the road. Upcoming does mean that it's not out yet, but TiVo says we'll be notified in the customer newsletter as soon as the app is available. It will be interesting to get our hands on the TiVo app since it really could open up a lot of powerful features. [Via PCMag.com]
Use Dropbox to backup a few folders every day
There's a nice little tutorial on Justin Schwalbe's blog for using a simple script to backup a few folders to a Dropbox backup folder every day. Why would you do this? Well, let's say you aren't always able to connect to a hard drive for Time Machine, but you have a couple of document folders you want to make sure are backed up off site every day. If you are traveling but have internet access, this script plus Dropbox will save your bacon -- or your files, at least. Note that you should be comfortable with bash scripting to successfully implement this backup solution. You can, of course, also keep folders in Dropbox itself, but Justin's scripted method allows incremental backups that keep versions from a few days back, so (sort of like Time Machine), if you find yourself needing a file from two days ago versus five minutes ago, you'll have that in a dedicated folder based on the date. If you're not comfortable with Terminal or scripting, consider carrying a USB drive with you and relying upon Time Machine, Apple's built-in backup solution. Update: As noted by Justin in the comments, this creates encrypted disk images. Also, Dropbox does have versioning that goes back 30 days, available on the Dropbox site. photo by Flickr user jm3
Tether your iPhone with the Nexaria BC2 router
The Nexaria BC2 router is a rather ugly 802.11b/g/n router that will allow tethering on the iPhone 3, 3GS and 4. Unfortunately, you must plug the thing into an outlet to power it up, providing somewhat limited use. Typical use case for tethering is using your phone as a modem and connecting to your Mac on the go. Here, you are chained to your desk. But if you're willing to uglify your work space, the router will grab that bandwidth from your iPhone (using your data allotment from AT&T) and beam it around your room via Wi-Fi for the low price of $189. Ideal? Hardly, but it works for what it does.
Twitter adds Ping functionality to user pages
Earlier today, Twitter announced that it has integrated Apple's Ping into users' home pages. Now, Twitter users can view each others' Ping activity, listen to song previews and link to/purchase music from iTunes directly from tweets posted to Twitter.com. Here's how it works: First, log into your Ping account and click the new "Connect to Twitter" button. A window pops up requesting your Twitter credentials. You'll receive a confirmation and a list of Twitter contacts who have also enabled Ping sharing. Then you're done! The new Ping information will show up at Twitter.com for you. Apple introduced PIng a few months ago, and has struggled a bit during its initial growth period. Steve Jobs recently met with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to discuss Apple's fledgling social network. That meeting was well-publicized, but we didn't know this Twitter collaboration was coming. Good luck to both companies on this joint venture. Now you can tweet your ping. Or is it ping your tweet? We're so confused.
Sprint to launch Peel case for iPod touch on Sunday
The rumors have come to fruition: Sprint will launch the ZTE Peel case for the iPod touch on November 14th. According to documents acquired by the Boy Genius Report, the device will cost US$79.99 and require a $30 month-to-month plan. Customers will get a 1GB data allowance per month, with overage charges of $0.05 per megabyte. The ZTE Peel is an iPod touch case that's also a mobile hotspot. When it place, it provides 3G access to the iPod touch (2nd and 3rd generation) plus one other device. Why not the 4th generation touch? Well, the camera is in the wrong spot, for starters. Unlike the similar Apple Peel 520, Sprint's ZTE Peel won't allow you to send or receive text messages or phone calls. Still, it should answer what GigaOM calls "If Only Moments" that iPod touch users are familiar with. Now the App Store and iTunes Store are always available, and Internet-dependent apps are almost always an option. If you pick one up, let us know how it goes. It's certainly an interesting piece of hardware.
.Mac Homepage shutting down today
In April of 2009, Apple announced the pending discontinuation of its .Mac Homepage service. A formal date was set in October, and that date is today. Your sites won't be gone for good, however. To find them, open your iDisk and navigate to the Sites folder. There you'll find all of the HTML pages that made up your Homesite. Likewise, pictures and movies will be found in the Pictures and Movies folder. Note that publishing with iWeb will not be affected by this change. So long, Homepages! Thanks for all the fish.
Sony Internet TV with Google TV review
If you're interested in being an early adopter of Google TV, for now you can choose a separate passthrough box like the Logitech Revue or Sony's Blu-ray player, or plop the whole experience into the display with Sony's new Internet TV line. We spent some time with the Sony Internet TV NSX-32GT1, and we're a bit surprised to find that it could feature the best implementation of the Google TV experience of them all. But is that enough? After you've digested our impressions of the platform as a whole, check out our review of the Internet TV to find out.%Gallery-106268%%Gallery-104910% This review is primarily of the Sony Internet TV hardware -- make sure you read our full Google TV review to get a feel for the platform itself!
