browsers posts

Filed under: Features, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Google, Browsers, Lists

15+ great Google Chrome extensions

by Lee Mathews Nov 2nd 2009

We've already mentioned other ways to power up Google Chrome. Before extensions arrived on the developer channel, Userscripts and bookmarklets were your only options. Both are still great ways to add some kick-ass functionality to Chrome. If you're running the stable or beta builds, you may want to stick to them for now.

10 handy Userscripts for Google Chrome users
15+ handy bookmarklets for Google Chrome (and other browsers, too!)

Now, onto the extensions!

If you have a favorite that I left off, feel free to share it in the comments!
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Tags: add-ons, bookmarklets, browser, browsers, chrome-4, chromium, developer-channel, extensions, features, google chrome, google-chrome, GoogleChrome, lists, productivity, UserScripts, utilities

Filed under: Design, Developer, Productivity, Web services, Adobe, Web

Adobe Browserlab open for business

by Matt Heerema Oct 21st 2009

Several months ago Jay pointed to Browserlab, a very useful new service for Web developers from Adobe. Browserlab allows you to view a Web page in multiple versions of most of the latest browsers. Since cross browser testing is perhaps the most painful part of Web development, any service that aids in this task is very welcome. The service is now accepting new users, and is very cool.

The flash-based tool will render a page in recent versions of the most used browsers, and will let you view an image of the rendered page one at a time, side by side (2-up view) or my personal favorite, onion skin view, which stacks two images from two different browsers on top of each other and gives you a slider to adjust translucency back and forth so you can see just how horribly Internet Explorer renders your page elements relative to every other modern browser.

The service is currently free and I expect that I will be using it quite heavily.

At the time of writing, the supported browsers are:

Firefox 2.0 - Windows XP - version 2.0.0.18
Firefox 3.0 - Windows XP - version 3.0.4
Internet Explorer 6.0 - Windows XP - version 6.0.3790.3959
Internet Explorer 7.0 - Windows XP - version 7.0.5730
Internet Explorer 8.0 - Windows XP - version 8.0.6001.18702
Safari 3.0 - OS X - version 3.2.3
Safari 4.0 - OS X - version 4.0.3
Firefox 2.0 - OS X - version 2.0.0.18
Firefox 3.0 - OS X - version 3.0.4

Tags: adobe, browserlab, browsers

Filed under: Google, Browsers

Google Chrome grows up, stable build gets bumped to version 3

by Lee Mathews Sep 15th 2009

Those of you who are tired of reading about all the great features Google has been packing into Chrome's beta and developer channel builds, it's time to break out the Guinness. A fortnight after Google Chrome's first birthday, Google has bumped the stable version to 3.0.195.21.

So what does that mean, exactly? The stable version now includes features like the updated new tab page, improved omnibar, and themes support. Oh yeah, there's also the Javascript performance boost -- at last check, the V8 engine's power level was well over 9,000. Or 150% better than Chrome's first beta release, anyway.

HTML5 support has also made its way into the stable channel, making it possible to take advantage of things like the <video> tag (try it out here) and <audio> and <canvas> elements. Check out Chrome Experiment #50 to see audio and canvas at work.

Bookmark syncing and extension support still aren't included - those are still reserved for the daredevilish types running the beta and developer channels.

Insert snide remark here: Three major versions in a year, huh? At this rate, Google will be pushing Google Chrome 7 by the time Mozilla ships Firefox 4 in 2010.

Tags: browsers, chromium, google chrome, google-chrome, GoogleChrome, web browser, WebBrowser

Filed under: News, Browsers

Which browser isn't such a battery hog?

by Jay Hathaway Sep 14th 2009

If you use your laptop primarily for web browsing, the browser you choose could make a difference in how long your battery lasts. AnandTech tested out the latest versions of the most popular Windows browsers on three different laptops, and it turns out that - when it comes to battery endurance, anyway - IE 8 is the champ. It yielded 5 to 10 minutes of additional battery life compared to Firefox, Chrome and Opera, and nearly half an hour more than Safari.

The three computers in the test were a Gateway with an Intel processor, a Gateway with an AMD processor, and a netbook, the Asus Eee PC. The two Gateways were running Vista, with the Eee PC running XP. On the Eee PC, the browsers all came in within a few minutes of one another, meaning you should make your decision based on other features. On the other machines, though, IE was the clear leader. Firefox (with adblock installed) came in second. Because adblock keeps battery-intensive Flash elements from being displayed, running it will let you eke out an extra 10 minutes compared to standard-issue Firefox.

Tags: battery, battery life, BatteryLife, browsers, ie8, laptop, test

Filed under: Developer, Games, Browsers

WebGL: bringing native 3D graphics to your browser

by Jay Hathaway Sep 14th 2009

One of the most-anticipated features HTML5 promises for the web is the canvas tag, which allows for dynamic rendering of 2D images. If you can use HTML to draw a 2D image, can native 3D graphics be far behind?

The WebGL project is making that a reality by combining the canvas element, a bit of JavaScript, and the OpenGL 3D drawing engine. OpenGL has been around for years, and you might know it because of its use in many popular desktop video games - if this project is a success, you could be playing 3D games in your browser.

WebGL isn't that far along, though, It's just started turning up in developer builds of Webkit -the engine behind Safari and Google Chrome - and isn't even enabled by default in the nightly builds yet. Webkit is just the first test, too. It's only one segment part of the market, that doesn't include IE and Firefox. For native 3D games to really take off on the web, they'd have to be supported for a much larger percentage of web users. Google, Mozilla and Opera are all on board for the WebGL working group, but Microsoft hasn't said anything. MS doesn't have a history of playing nicely with web standards, but they might be forced to offer some support if everyone else is doing it.

If you want to see WebGL in action, check out the video after the jump.

[via Slashdot]

Tags: 3d, browsers, games, graphics, opengl, webgl, webkit

Filed under: Utilities, Browsers

Coral IE Tab: the best way to view IE-only sites in Firefox

by Jay Hathaway Sep 9th 2009

If you're a Firefox fan who frequently has to use sites that only display properly in Internet Explorer, don't despair. Coral IE Tab lets you do it without running two browsers at once. It's a modified version of the popular IE Tab add-on, with a couple of important features added on. Like IE Tab, it displays pages as if you were using Internet Explorer, but it also saves your cookies and works with the Adblock Plus add-on.

In Coral IE Tab's settings, you can assign preferences to individual sites, so you don't have to manually switch to IE whenever you visit an offending page. If you're already running IE Tab, Coral IE Tab can import its settings (you should disable it afterward to avoid any conflicts). I hope that we can leave IE-only sites behind sooner rather than later but, until that time, an add-on beats running an entire second browser.

[via instantfundas]

Tags: browsers, coral ie tab, CoralIeTab, firefox, gecko, ie tab, IeTab

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Browsers

Always pick the right browser for the job with Browser Chooser

by Jay Hathaway Sep 3rd 2009

Most people have a favorite browser, but if you use two or three, it can be tricky to make sure you're opening links in the right one. If you're a web developer, and you need to test your site in several different browsers, having a quick way to switch between them is even more useful. That's the idea behind Browser Chooser, a Windows app that acts as your default browser and lets you pick which browser to open a link in.

Browser Chooser has slots for four browsers, which should be plenty for the average user, but might be a bit of a handicap if you're testing things across versions. Setup is pretty simple: you just add the browsers you want, and then click a "set as default browser" button. Then, whenever you open a new link, you'll get to select the right browser for the job.

[via instantfundas]

Tags: browser chooser, BrowserChooser, browsers

Filed under: OS Updates, Google, Browsers

More Chrome OS clues - and it's sure sounding like a bootable browser

by Lee Mathews Sep 2nd 2009

After a second (or is it third?) round of possible Chrome OS images captured by the ever-popular A. Nonymous Tipster on his trusty-but-low-res digital camera, speculation around Google's ethereal OS is bound to keep heating up.

I located a reference to Chrome OS in the Chromium source code's switches file yesterday, and today I was intrigued to find not just a few lines in a file but an entire directory.

Nestled in the 204 branch is a chromeos folder which only contains a couple of files at this point. They do provide a couple interesting insights, however:

The status bar contains a clock, an application menu, and a non-working battery indicator.
Some information about the single sign-on cookie: "To support single-sign-on for Chrome OS, we need a way to inject cookies into Chrome. In the case of session cookies, putting them into Chrome's cookie jar DB doesn't work. This CL adds a command line flag that tells chrome the name of a Unix pipe to open, from which it can read said cookies."

Tags: browsers, chrome-os, chromium-os, google, open-source, opensource

Filed under: Google, Open Source, Beta, Browsers

Google Chrome to reach v4 before Firefox? Work begins on Chromium 4.0

by Lee Mathews Aug 12th 2009

Version numbers probably mean more to the general public than to regulars at DownloadSquad. When it comes to Chrome, however, Google seems like they're hoping to catch up with Opera by the end of next year.

After doing an install from Buildbot's snapshots, I checked Chromium's about screen. Lo and behold, build 23129 is tagged as 4.0.202.0. While it's just a number, it means, of course, Chrome will likely hit v4 long before Firefox ever does.

Other than the version number I haven't noted any obvious changes as of yet.

Technical Program Manager Anthony LaForge posted a note to the Chromium-dev board announcing that the move was made to reflect the code freeze on Chrome v3. "There is still a bit of work that needs to be done for 3.0 in terms of stability and fixes," he wrote. "To that end we will be pulling changes into the 195 branch (what will become the stable release)."

This isn't the first quick version-to-version jump Chrome has seen. Chrome 3 hit the dev channel less than a week after Chrome 2's release back in May. Looks like I was off the mark about Chrome hitting version 8 or 9 before Google ditched the beta tag on GMail...

Tags: browsers, chrome, chromium, google-chrome-4, nightly-build, snapshot, version-change

Filed under: Fun, Browsers, Humor

IE6ify: a bookmarklet that breaks the web

by Jay Hathaway Jul 30th 2009

There's a lot of rage directed at Internet Explorer 6 these days, including several very serious sites detailing the ways it's holding the web back and making designers' lives miserable. Sometimes rage isn't the best approach, though. Sometimes you need to have a sense of humor – or, if you're a designer who has to support IE6, laugh to keep from crying. That's where the IE6ify bookmarklet comes in.

When you IE6ify a site using the bookmarklet, you can see it breaking the webpage more literally than IE6 already does. Page elements shift and overlap, images are corrupted, and the whole layout generally just takes off directly for hell in a handbasket. The more times you click the bookmarklet, the closer you get to an experience as authentically horrible as actually using IE6.

Tags: bookmarklet, browsers, funny, IE6, ie6ify, internet-explorer, internet-explorer-6

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware, Browsers

FavBackup backs up browser settings (IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome)

by Brad Linder Jul 13th 2009

There are plenty of Windows applications that let you backup your browser settings, whether you're using Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, or other browsers. Or you can just use FavBackup, which is a single tool that will let you backup or restore your settings for five different web browsers for Windows.

FavBackup can handle your browser history, bookmarks, cookies, preferences, and other data. And it's both a free and portable application, which means you can run the executable utility from a USB flash drive without installing FavBackup to your computer.

[via The How-To Geek]

Tags: backup, browsers, favbackup

Filed under: Design, Utilities, Browsers

Modernizr: start implementing CSS 3 and HTML5 features now

by Jay Hathaway Jul 3rd 2009

So, you're a web designer, and you want to start taking advantage of new features in CSS 3 and HTML5. That's great, but you know that most of your users aren't running browsers that support these new standards. You could just wait for browsers to get with the times, or you could check out Modernizr.

Modernizr is a JavaScript library by Faruk Ates that detects which functionality a browser can support, and allows you to use if-statements to fine-tune your fallbacks for browsers that don't support the new hotness. Modernizr can't fix old browsers, but it can make it more practical to support newer ones. On top of all the CSS 3 styles it can detect support for, it also allows you to use and style HTML5 elements without breaking your site for IE users. Not too shabby for a little bit of JavaScript.

Tags: browsers, css-3, html5, javascript, modernizr, web-standards

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Microsoft, Browsers, Humor

Microsoft offers a cough totally unbiased comparison of the Big 3 browsers

by Lee Mathews Jun 18th 2009

Oh Microsoft, you and your wacky propoganda!

Yes, we know that Internet Explorer 8 isn't the same steaming pile of dung that past versions have been. Yes, we know it has some neat features like accelerators and InPrivate filtering. But we really had no idea that you had such a great sense of humor!

If you haven't seen the now infamous chart (and you likely have, thanks to Reddit), it's well worth a look. Don't go looking for any real world data to back things up though. There are no screenshots, nothing on the chart is linked to anything else, and the "mythbusting" page points only to two malware studies and the IE8 add-ons gallery.

There are, of course, some valid points - other browsers lacking enterprise tools, for example. The rest of it, well, you tell me. What do you think of the points they make?

My personal favorite: the Firefox add-ons I'd want to download are already built in to IE8. You know, like my three must haves - LastPass, Weave, and Greasemonkey. Oh wait, no...No, none of that functionality is built in.

I do like the little green checkmarks, Microsoft. They suuuuure are purty!

Tags: browsers, humor, internet-explorer, propoganda

Filed under: Design, Productivity, Adobe, Beta, Browsers

Adobe Browserlab now in limited preview

by Jay Hathaway Jun 5th 2009

One of the challenges of web design is making sure your site renders properly in the most popular browsers your visitors use. Sometimes, this means installing an extra browser or two (or ten) on your system, to preview your page in each one. It might even mean running multiple operating systems. Well, Adobe BrowserLab aims to fix all that by generating previews of a page as it would look in several different browsers, across multiple operating systems.

You can view the previews side-by-side to get a direct comparison between Firefox 2 and 3 for Mac or Windows XP, IE 6 and 7 for Windows XP, and Safari 3 for Mac. There's also an Onion Skin mode that allows you to overlay one version on another, with adjustable transparency. Sure, there are some perfectly viable browsers that aren't included, but the most popular players are all there. It will be interesting to see if Adobe expands BrowserLab to reflect the increasing adoption of mobile browsers.

The free preview of BrowserLab is available now, but it's limited and there aren't always slots available. You'll find a "check status" link on the download site to let know whether you can get in.

Tags: adobe, browserlab, browsers, design, preview

Filed under: Developer, Microsoft, Browsers

Someone out there wants to save IE6

by Jay Hathaway Apr 2nd 2009

Jason recently wrote on Download Squad about a Facebook group aimed at eliminating Internet Explorer 6 from the web, and Lee even found a script that reminds IE6 users to upgrade when they visit your site. Not everyone is ready to let IE6 go, though. Just ask the folks behind Save IE6, a site dedicated to the preservation of this "powerful and versatile" browser.

Save IE6 features a petition (signed by around 450 people when I checked), quotes from satisfied users, and links to download the browser. Funnily enough, some of the people in favor of keeping IE6 around are web developers, the very group that has been most vocal about being inconvenienced by Microsoft's older model. I'm not sure I buy the "how can IE6 be violating standards when it has essentially BEEN the standard for years?" argument. After all, standards change, and standards have seemingly passed IE6 by.

Updated: Ha! They totally got me. I knew this idea was crazy, but I didn't catch that it was also a really good April Fools' Joke, apparently by Pingdom.

What do you think, Download Squad readers? Should IE6 be saved, or is it time to let go?

Tags: browsers, IE6, internet-explorer, Microsoft, petition, poll

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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