Though the recent release of Firefox 3.6 alpha 1 didn't prioritize support for Windows 7's jumplists, Google has flicked the switch in the latest developer channel build of Chrome.

As you can see in the screenshot above, Chrome's jumplist works just like any other in Windows 7. Recently browsed sites are listed below those you pin to the list. Space is also reserved for quick access to recently closed tabs and opening new windows - both normal and incognito.

Quick access to (I might as well say it) porn mode is a welcome change. Sure, you could set up it yourself by adding a command line argument to your Chrome shortcut, but this is a much more elegant solution. That's assuming, of course, you're on Windows 7 and can take advantage of the feature.

Grab the build from the Developer Channel page.

One of our perennial complaints about annoying apps like iTunes is the fact that they require us to reinstall the whole app every time there's an update. Apart from being annoying, it's inefficient.

Google seems to feel the same way, which has led Chrome/Chromium developers to implement a new binary diff algorithm (dubbed Courgette) which greatly reduces the size of its updates. Courgette delivers updates that are .08% the size of the Chromium mini installer (about 80Kb as opposed to 10Mb). In the official blog post, they state "It is an anathema to us to push out a whole new 10MB update to give you a ten line security fix." Can I get an Amen?

The blog also offers several reasons Google is excited about the new, Liliputian updates:

We want smaller updates because it narrows the window of vulnerability. If the update is a tenth of the size, we can push ten times as many per unit of bandwidth. We have enough users that this means more users will be protected earlier. A secondary benefit is that a smaller update will work better for users who don't have great connectivity.

Now if we could just convince other application developers to adopt this kind of attitude toward patching. I'm not going to hold my breath.

Everyone had a bit of a chuckle when Opera coyly announced that they were about to "reinvent the web," the other day. I certainly had my doubts. After all, we had nothing to go by other than a bright red background, a little cloud, and some comments buried inside HTML code.

While I'm not certain I would call what Opera has done with Unite (version 10 of its browser) a reinvention of the web, it's certainly a clever, inventive twist on the run-of-the-mill web browser.

So what is it?

Unite sits in Opera's side toolbar and adds various server features to the browser. By default it includes file, media, and photo sharing, a web server, chat room, and "fridge" for storing notes. There are no additional Unite services available yet, though it's safe to assume that community-produced options will start appearing soon (developer resources are listed here).

You configure your sharing options - choose a base directory, set access permissions - and Opera provides a URL you can provide to your friends. Sure, there are hundreds of websites we already use to share media, leave each other messages, and chat, but Opera Unite lets you do it with a single registration and without uploading any of your content to a remote server.

Unite's sharing pages render just fine in other browsers, so you friends don't have to be running Opera. As with previous Opera releases, it's available for Windows, Linux, and Mac.

The browser itself hasn't changed - it's still Opera 10, love it or hate it. The new Unite functions are very clever and do add a certain amount of cool factor. It will be interesting to see if the new features can increase the size Opera's fan base.

Take Unite for a spin and share your thoughts, or have a look at the gallery (work in progress)!

Qt Web, the portable, privacy-focused web browser I first posted about in January, has announced the release of its second major version.

The new version features even more customization options for menus, hotkeys, and buttons, including the ability to hide the main menu. Version 2 also adds a virtual keyboard for mouse-only surfing, a print preview option, a better download manager, and improvements to QTWeb's privacy tools. A number of bugfixes have also been implemented - the full list is available on the QT web site.

Two new features that developers will appreciate have been added. Web Inspector - a Firebug-like tool for examining web pages - makes it easy to analyze and troubleshoot code. The Inspector also includes a resources view (pictured) which tracks load times for individual elements on a page. Command line scripting has also been added, which allows dumping pages (including javascript-heavy ones) to a single file.

The installer, portable executable, and zipped portable version are all available from the QtWeb download page.

Ubuntu users (or users of a Ubuntu-based distro) who have been waiting patiently for the chance to play with Google Chrome, there's now a dead simple way for you to do it. Thanks to the PPA (personal package archive) for Chromium daily builds team, getting the pre-alpha Chromium browser running on your system is about as painless as it can be at this stage.

You'll need to add repositories, of course. They are (substitute jaunty or hardy if needed):

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main

Once they've been added, running sudo apt-get install chromium-browser in a terminal window will take care of the rest. After the package has finished installing, just type chromium-browser [enter] to fire it up.

While it's still in its early stages, Chromium on Linux runs as it does on Windows - fast and smooth. Some important features aren't working yet, like the tab and bookmarks bars and options menu, but nearly everything else is. Incognito, history, download manager, and the new tab view are all functional, and every web page I tested rendered beautifully - and fast.

Check the gallery after the break for screenshots from my CrunchBang install.

Apple has launched a public beta of Safari 4, the latest update to its web browser for OS X and Windows. The new browser is fast, attractive, and to be honest, feels a lot like Google Chrome. Both browsers use the WebKit rendering engine, so for the most part if you can view a page in one browser it should render properly in the other (although the Safari 4 download page didn't work properly in Google Chrome - I had to fire up Firefox in order for the download link to appear Update: It looks like the download page now works in Chrome). And now Safari also automatically generates thumbnail previews of the pages you visit more frequently, just as Google Chrome does.

Sure, both Google and Apple ripped the feature off from Opera, which had a Speed Dial feature long before anybody. But Safari 4's new Top Sites feature is pretty slick. When you first launch the browser you're greeted with thumbnails for popular web sites like Wikipedia and Google Maps. As you use the browser, Safari will detect which web sites you visit mos frequently and add them to the list.

There's also a little history search box in the bottom right corner of the screen. Start typing a query and Safari will conduct a full history search. But unlike Chrome or Firefox which show the results in the locationbar, Safari will bring up a Cover Flow window and show you previews of each web site containing your search term.

Like Google Chrome, Safari 4 moves the browser tabs to the very top of the window and has a smarter address field that saves you time when typing a web address. For instance, once I've typed www.downloadsquad.com once, the next time I start to type "down" Safari will fill out the rest of me.

Safari has also added the full page zoom feature that's so popular with the kids these days, and which is missing from Google Chrome, which only lets you zoom in on text. The Windows version of Safari 4 also supports native Windows fonts, title bars, and borders.

As with most Apple products, if you're installing the Windows version you'll want to be careful during the installation process. If you don't uncheck all of the options, you could wind up installing several other utilities in addition to the web browser.

QTWeb is an open source browser based on the Webkit rendering engine and the QT framework. It's been developed with special attention paid to protecting your privacy.

Page load times are fast, and QT scored well on AcidTests (for what it's worth). Oddly enough, Webkit's SunSpider Java benchmark didn't complete. Resource usage is very respectable, typically less than or equal to Chrome with the same sites open.

Like most current browsers, QT includes a private browsing mode. Activate it, and QT will mask your user agent and make sure no local traces of your history are left behind.

I did experience a few rendering issues, though they were mostly limited to Flash-heavy sites. Most of the time a quick page down/page up would correct things.

Development is very active, with the most recent build coming just six days ago. Given some time to work out the bugs, QTWeb should become an excellent alternative browser. I wouldn't recommend QTWeb as an everyday browser just yet, but it's definitely a project worth watching.

In its present state. the portable version is only about 4mb and would still make a good addition to your USB flash drive or Windows PE disc. Source code is available from the QT Google Code project page.

Just in case you needed any proof that software version numbers are meaningless, Google has updated Google Chrome, it's web browser to version 1.0 (or 1.0.154.36 to be exact). Yesterday the latest version of the software was version 0.4.154.29.

So why remove the beta label now, especially when the 4 year old Gmail service is still officially in beta? Well, the official explanation is because the company's goals for stability and performance have been met. But it also likely has something to do with Google's plans to convince hardware makers to preload the web browser on computers -- something they may be reluctant to do with beta software.

So aside from the version number, what else is different in the latest build? Honestly, I'm not sure. Most of the items that Google showcases in its blog post about the new release are updates that we've already seen like the addition of a bookmark manager, and improved speed and performance.

More updates are still in the works. Google is promising support for plugins, RSS feeds, and form autofill features.

There's been a lot of talk about instant on* software lately. Earlier this year, Asus announced plans to outfit every one of its motherboards with the Splashtop software interface that lets you load a Linux based OS in a matter of seconds without waiting for Windows or another full operating system to launch. This allows you to surf the web, make VoIP calls, or do other basic tasks shortly after hitting the power button.

Most of the instant on* platforms we've seen come bundled with the Firefox web browser. That makes sense, since it's fairly popular and open source, making it easy to work with. But Phoenix Technologies, maker of the HyperSpace instant on* platform has announced that it will begin to use the Opera web browser.

Opera has a reputation for being pretty fast as web browsers go, both when it comes to launching the application and when it comes to rendering web pages. Under the deal, Opera will further optimize its web browser to work within the Phoenix HyperSpace environment.

Unlike Splashtop, HyperSpace can be run while you're booting a full operating system in the background. Or you can even launch HyperSpace from within Windows.

* While Splashtop and HyperSpace certainly launch faster than Windows XP or a full Linux desktop operating system like Ubuntu, it still takes 5-15 seconds to boot the OS, and a bit longer to connect to a wireless network if you want to use a web browser or other applicationgs that require internet access.

Opera Mobile 9.5 beta is out today, and it's already the slickest web browser available for Windows Mobile devices. Opera has always been faster than Pocket Internet Explorer at quickly rendering web pages, but Opera Mobile 9.5 beta does a far better job of displaying web pages quickly and accurately than the last stable version, Opera Mobile 8.65.

Probably the most dramatic difference between Opera Mobile 9.5 beta and earlier versions of the software is the support for full desktop page views. In other words, you can see a complete web page pretty much exactly as you would on a desktop. Of course, most web sites aren't designed for cellphones and PDAs with screens as small as 320 x 240 pixels. So The text is pretty much unreadable in this view. But you can drag and drop the screen to find the portion you want to read and a little double click action zooms in and makes the text nice and readable. In other words, Opera Mobile 9.5 beta works a lot like the Safari browser on the iPhone.

The updated browser is also designed to make the most of your device's screen real estate. By default, Opera functions in full screen mode, with no toolbars at the top or bottom of your page. If you need to switch tabs, enter a URL, or hit the back button, you just tap on a small, semi-transparent arrow that hangs out near the bottom of your screen to bring up a menu.

Opera Mobile 9.5 is still in beta, and there are a few known issues. For example, one of the biggest improvements Opera has planned is support for Flash Lite 3 which will allow users to view YouTube movies and other Flash video content. But ActiveX is disabled in this beta release, and that means Flash plugins are disabled and embedded video streams will not play.

Opera Mobile 9.5 is available for free while in beta, and is designed for Windows Mobile 5.0 and Windows Mobile 6. You should also make sure to install the browser to your device's main memory, as Opera reports that installing to a memory card could cause problems.

Opera has launched a release candidate of Opera 9.5, the latest version of the company's web browser. Opera 9.5 has been in beta for several months, but the release candidate is a bit more stable, sports a few new features, and more importantly, a bunch of bug fixes. Here are a few of the highlights:

• Features a previously mentioned new skin
• Smoother upgrade from Opera 9.2 to 9.5
• "Download message bodies" enabled on all POP accounts
• Stability fixes
• Improvements to the Mac native skin and fixed support for Mac OS X 10.2

Unless major issues with Opera 9.5 RC are found, this version could eventually be marked a stable release. If you haven't tried Opera in a while, it's worth taking for a spin. While there are still a handful of sites and web services that don't render properly in Opera, (Google, we're looking at you), overall the browser is incredibly fast and full featured.

It's been a few years since the Opera web browser's interface got a major overhaul. But now the Opera Desktop Team has posted an updated version of Opera 9.5 beta which features a shiny new theme.

The new theme is a bit closer to what you'll find on Opera's non-desktop browsers, including Opera 9.5 for Windows Mobile and Opera for the Nintendo Wii. Aside from a darker look, there are a few nice features, like an animated stop/refresh button that turns red when a page is loading, and green when it's finished.

There's also a new settings icon in the main toolbar that lets you open the side panel to launch the Opera Widget engine, bookmark sidebar and other tools.

The updated version of Opera 9.5 beta is a development snapshot, so there are some known issues. But there's an option to install this version side by side with an existing version of Opera so you don't lose your settings.

For a long time, NetFront was the reigning champ of Windows Mobile and PocketPC web browsers. While Pocket Internet Explorer comes standard with most Windows Mobile phones and PDAs, the browser renders pages slowly, lacks support for tabs, and doesn't handle AJAX very well. NetFront does all of those things and more. And if it weren't for the introduction of Opera Mobile a few years ago, which has the same features plus speedier page rendering, we would still heartily be recommending NetFront.

But ACCESS, the company behind the NetFront browser is working hard to keep up with Opera. This week ACCESS released the second concept version (or beta) of NetFront 3.5 for Windows Mobile. When the final version is released you'll have to pay for this browser, but while it's in beta, it's free and definitely worth checking out. Here's a short list of updates in the latest version:

• Improved CPU usage
• AutoCruise function has been removed
• Faster page rendering
• Faster page zooming
• Faster scrolling
• Faster switching between rendering modes (landscape or portrait, single column or desktop style)

The beta will expire on August 31, 2008. Note that you should install NetFront to your device's main memory, not to a storage card or you may experience some stability issues.

Flock, the social web browser built from Firefox code keeps getting more social. Flock 1.2 beta adds Digg, Pownce, and AOL Mail integration. Once you login to Digg for the first time from the Flock browser, you'll have the option of opening up a Digg sidebar which shows you all of your Digg contacts and their recent activity. You can also click a button in the sidebar to submit any page you're currently visiting to Digg.

Micro-blogging service Pownce has also been added to the sidebar. If you have a Pownce account you can keep up with your contacts without opening a separate web page. Previous versions of Flock already supported Twitter.

Finally, the latest beta adds support for AOL Mail notifications. This isn't so much a social feature as an essential feature if you happen to use AOL as your primary web mail account. Flock already supported Yahoo! Mail and Gmail. We're not sure why AOL wasn't already in there, or why Windows Live Hotmail still isn't supported.

Like Firefox, Flock is cross-platform. There are versions of Flock 1.2 beta for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

[via CyberNet]

A little over a month after releasing a public beta of Opera Mini 4.1, the Opera team has pushed out the final version of its latest cellphone browser. The newest build is reportedly 50% faster than opera mini 4.0. It also has a handful of new features including the ability to save web paes fr offline viewing, the ability to upload and download images from within the browser, and improved page and web search features.

The final build looks a lot like the public beta, but the developers have fixed a bunch of bugs and made some changes to the page saving and address auto-complete features.

Opera Mini 4.1 is available as a free download for dozens of different cellphone models.