The Fight over the Web Browsers

It's probably the most important and debated piece of software on the modern computer. See how your fellow readers get around the net, and vote for your favorite web browser, in this week's Hive Five.

Picture background created with WEB2DNA Art Project.

The only proper way to follow up on the passionate flurry of voting that last week's Hive Five Best Linux Distributions created was to ask you about your favorite web browser. You didn't disappoint—Lifehacker readers came out in force, logging nearly a thousand votes to support their favorite browsers. We've tallied up the votes and we're here to share the top five browsers.

Chrome

Windows only (for practical purposes, but soon on Mac and Linux, if we're lucky): Some browsers have roots going back to the early 1990s—Chrome, on the other hand, is the new kid on the block. Although Chrome has a distant relationship to Konqueror and is a cousin to the Safari web browser—both share the speedy WebKit rendering engine—Google's browser is less than a year old. Despite its youth, it's already garnered praise for its minimalist interface and snappy page rendering. Chrome also handles site errors and quirks well, and each individual tab is a unique process, so a crash or lag in one shouldn't pull down or crash the others. In general, though, Chrome has caught attention for running a performance-focused JavaScript engine in a lightweight GUI. Also worth noting, Chrome has been holding its own in the recent Pwn2Own security challenge, with the distinction of being the only browser left standing after the first day of security exploits and attacks. For a closer look at Chrome, check out our screenshot tour.

Opera

Windows/Mac/Linux: Opera is a rock-solid browser with roots stretching back to 1994. Many of the features baked right into Opera are either not implemented in other browsers, or require multiple extensions at the cost of system resources—navigation by mouse gestures is one of the flashier examples. Despite being feature-packed, Opera has a fairly small market share, due largely in part to being trialware up until 2000 and advertisement-supported until 2005—many people were turned off by the expense, if not the ads. Still, Opera proponents have long claimed that Opera beats Internet Explorer and Firefox when it comes to speedy rendering. Another selling point for Opera is the quality of the built-in tools. For many users, the built-in RSS reader, email client, and BitTorrent client do their jobs admirably, cutting down on the number applications they need running at once. Opera is extensible, but the pool of available extensions is radically smaller than that available for Firefox. More screenshots and details on Opera's features are available here.

Firefox

Windows/Mac/Linux: Firefox is the grandchild of the venerable Mosaic browser and free-roaming son of Netscape. Although Firefox has a myriad of user-friendly, forward-thinking features, a decently secure framework, and an open-source ideology, its most prominent is extensibility. When convincing a Firefox user to abandon Firefox for anything else, even temporarily, you won't have to fight them over giving up the AwesomeBar or about:config tweaks—you'll hear a common, understandable refrain: "What about my extensions?" The repository of extensions maintained by Mozilla currently has over 6,000 entries, covering everything from blocking advertisements, to managing your clipboard, to allowing you to further customize your browsing experience with scripts a la Greasemonkey (here's 10 of our must-have picks). Combine the passion people have for extensions and the ability tosync those extensions across multiple computers and portable installations, and you've got a force to be contended with. For a closer look at Firefox, make sure to check out our power user's guide to Firefox 3 and the top 10 Firefox 3 features.

Internet Explorer

Windows only: Internet Explorer still commands a healthy chunk of the browser market, mostly because it ships with the most popular operating system on Earth and fits, if not exactly elegantly, into corporate computer plans. While many or most IE users stick with it for lack of wanting to try something else, Lifehacker readers definitely don't fall into that crowd—the majority of readers who voted in favor of Internet Explorer are sporting Internet Explorer 8. By contrast, nearly 20 percent of those surfing the web right now are using Internet Explorer 6, which had its initial release in 2001. Version 8 could mark a resurgence for the brand, though. It's the first version of Internet Explorer to have a strong focus on web standards compliance, as well as increasing rendering speed. And like Chrome, Internet Explorer 8 maintains a separate process for each tab to increase stability and security. Internet Explorer 8 has also beefed up its security measures from previous versions, including active filtering against malicious cross-site scripting and ActiveX isolation from the core of the browser. For more information about what's new in Internet Explorer 8 check out our screenshot tour and overview.

Safari

Windows/Mac: Safari is Apple's contribution to the web browsing world, built originally to fit snugly inside OS X. Like Chrome, Safari runs the speedy WebKit rendering engine for snappy page loads. In addition to its WebKit core, Safari also has the Nitro JavaScript engine, which lays claim to radically faster JavaScript execution than Internet Explorer and Firefox (in its own testing reports, anyways). Safari sports Apple's Cover Flow browser for perusing your history and bookmarks and an eye-catching display of the top 24 sites you've visited as the default page when Safari is loaded. For more features, check out ourscreenshot tour.

     Internet Explorer (64.66%; Usage by version number)     Mozilla Firefox (26.08%)     Safari (3.74%)     Google Chrome (3.17%)     Opera (1.53%)     Other (0.82%)

Modern Warfare 2 PC fans - Will Not be Happy

Some of you may have already seen the news but for those of you who haven’t you may want to take a look at this. That’s right kids, IW just took a massive pile of crap on you. Robert Bowlinig confirmed the following details recently:

According to the latest BASHandSlash recorded webcast (skip to the 1hour, 39minute mark for MW2), a number of very interesting bits of information have started to make their way onto the internet.

Robert Bowling has confirmed that the PC version of Call of Duty is essentially ruined as far as multiplayer and customization goes. Let’s get a quick rundown here of what Bowling said on the webcast.

• IW has control of the game
• IWnet servers will host multiplayer
• DLC will be a charged item for PC
• No dedicated servers <– WTF?
• Matchmaking system used to play with similarly ranked players
• VAC instead of PB
• Semi-capable password servers
• Semi-capable ad-hoc servers
• Competitive play is dead <– good job IW, idiots.
• MW2 mods would not be possible
• Full integration into Steam

I haven’t pre-ordered the game myself because when I pre-orderd COD5|WaW I ended up buying the game twice because the shipping was messed up. But you can be damn sure I won’t be spending $60 on a crippled piece of crap like this. If I wanted to have lame graphics, no mods, and no dedicated servers then I’d just go play on console. Not to mention controllers are a joke.

This news has really reuined my entire weekend, I was so excited for MW2 and now they just rip the dream away. I’ve been waiting for MW2 release for months and IW just took a huge steaming pile of shit on my dreams. I’m going to be stuck on COD4 until I’m 50 years old.

For those of you who have pre-ordered I encorage you to cancel your pre-orders. Do not let these assholes ruin MW2 for the PC community.

Here are some links for you to check out where you can join in the rioting:

• RAGE ON STEAM FORUMS
• RAGE ON CSNATION
• RAGE ON BASHANDSLASH
• SIGN THE PETITION HERE

For all you console gamers out there please understand where PC gamers are coming from. Yes, I know that these things are the way the game has been for you since the start but for us, it hasn’t. We pay lots of money to keep our gaming computers up to date with the latest hardware. We take great pride in our mods and competitive play. What IW has basically done here is kill it all off in the hopes they can make a few extra dollars from us. I really don’t know how to explain it to console gamers who have never played PC or know anything about PC gaming. If you’re a casual/weekend only gamer then the latest news about this means pretty much nothing to you. If you’re like me and many others who play Call of Duty daily or almost daily this news completely kills everything about MW2 and basically locks us into COD4 all so IW can try and make a few bucks off map packs and other downloaded content. I really expected better than this from IW, I am VERY disappointed.

I for one am TIRED of COD4 and I was really excited about MW2 and now this. I encorage everyone who has MW2 pre-ordered to cancel their order to make a statement.

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Apple Announces In-App Purchases For Free iPhone Applications

Apple has just announced that it will now support in-app purchasing for free applications on the App Store. This is absolutely huge news for developers, and will likely lead to a fundamental shift in the way applications are marketed and priced. It’s hard to overstate just how much this will change the App Store.

Up until now developers of premium applications have faced a major problem: they had no way to offer a feature-restricted version of an application for free that users could pay to unlock if they liked what they saw — a model that’s quite common on desktop software. This led to the creation of the so-called ‘Lite’ versions of applications, which generally offer a reduced featureset, but require users to download an entirely new application to access more features, which obviously isn’t ideal. Now, they won’t face this hurdle. They’ll be able to ditch the Lite version entirely, switch their currently premium app over to free (which will lead to more impulse downloads), and give users the chance to upgrade their featureset down the road.

This will also have a massive impact on free games that thrive on the sales of virtual goods, like Tapulous and Zynga. Up until now Tapulous has been unable to sell new songs through its flagship applications Tap Tap Revenge 1 and 2, because these are both free. In order to take advantage of the in-app purchase feature that Apple launched earlier this summer, Tapulous was forced to launch TTR3 as a 99 cent application. The app has still done extremely well, leading the Top Grossing charts for days, but it would have almost certainly gotten even more downloads had it been free.

Likewise, games like Zynga’s Mafia Wars and SGN’s Mafia: Respect and Retaliation have had to offer Lite version of their games, not necessarily because they wanted to restrict features to users, but because they had to charge something so that users could purchase virtual goods down the line. It looks like Zynga and others won’t be able to use virtual currency, which Apple has basically forbidden. However, don’t be surprised if they offer “packs” of upgrades that you can buy.

There have been various rumors as to why Apple restricted in-app purchases in free games to begin with. Some have speculated that Apple is concerned this will lead to many free apps that tempt users to download them and then do essentially nothing until you pay to unlock them, which is still a valid concern. Others believe it has to do Apple’s payment system, which may lack credit card information for users who only download free applications.

Here are some guidelines Apple is giving to developers for their integration of in-app purchases into free games:

1.1 You may use the In App Purchase API only to enable end users to purchase content, functionality, or services that You make available for use within Your Application (e.g. digital books, additional game levels, access to a turn-by-turn map service). You may not use the In App Purchase API to offer goods or services to be used outside of Your Application.

On Currency: 2.1 You may not use the In App Purchase API to enable an end user to set up a pre-paid account to be used for subsequent purchases of content, functionality, or services, or otherwise create balances or credits that end users can redeem or use to make purchases at a later time.

-No virtual currency

2.3 Content and services may be offered through the In App Purchase API on a subscription basis (e.g., subscriptions to a magazine, comic series, or financial reporting service); however, rentals of content, services or functionality through the In App Purchase API are not allowed (e.g., use of a particular game item or digital book for a pre-determined, limited period of time).

Note: This means that content owners won’t be able to let their content expire. This probably won’t be welcome news to many of them.

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Chrome OS Peeks Out Its Head A Bit Further. And What Is The Touchpad?

Pretty much every morning and every night I download the newest build of Chromium for Mac (the open source builds that will eventually turn into Chrome for Mac). While we made an auto-updater to do it for you, you can also manually find the latest builds here. This morning, I visited this site and noticed something new: A Chrome OS folder.

Sadly, this is Linux-only for the time-being, but that makes some sense since Chrome OS is Linux-based. And lest you think it’s just the Chromium for Linux build, there are already other folders dedicated to that (including a 64-bit variety), and the Chrome OS builds weigh in at 139 megabytes versus around 19 megabytes for Chromium.

Last month, we poked around some of the open source Chromium directories and were able to find some interesting information about Chrome OS. This included limited information about a status bar and a navigation bar, both of which will likely be key parts of Chrome OS. A scan today of various directories brings up even more interesting information.

Here, you will find some information about the compact navigation bar (there will be a “main menu” button), there’s some sort of “clock menu button,” there is some kind of document viewer called “GView” (that will at least be able to view PDFs), there will be a network menu button, and this is all being tested on a “touchpad.”

Wait, what?

Yes, at the bottom of the page, you will see two files that reference something called “touchpad.” From the language in these files, it’s not entirely clear if this is refering to a notebook trackpad or some sort of touch tablet that Google is testing Chrome OS on. Here’s an example:


Add touchpad speed factor setting to Chrome OS touchpad settings page. Created slider widget with native gtk widget.

And:

Make vertical edge scroll false by default. Fixed sensitivity parameter values and inverted the relationship between touch sensitivity preference and synclient parameter value.

It could go either way, but the wording on the latter makes me think that it’s just for notebook trackpads, so don’t get your hopes up about an “Apple Tablet Killer” just yet. Still, it seems reasonable that with a lot of manufacturers gettings into the tablet game again, Chrome OS will eventually work on them as well.



Article By TechCrunch

iPhone Homescreen Exposé Concept: Would you use this?

We get the strangest e-mails in the MobileCrunch tips line. Sometimes people will write in to tell us about their
day, using us as an archaic, vacuum-esque livejournal. Other times (and quite often), internet newbies fail to realize this isn’t a store, and ask us when we’ll have such and such item in stock. Less often, we’ll get random little gems of self-created goodness that I’m never quite sure what to do with; they’re not news, per se, but they’re still rather interesting.

Such is the case with this concept video (after the jump) from Swedish design house Ocean Observations. It looks rather flashy and neat, but I’m left wondering: would anyone use it?

It’s like OS X’s Expose feature, tweaked for iPhone app screens. Tap the home button, and up to 9 pages of homescreen are shown in a grid. Tapping any of the displayed pages will jump you directly to that page, allowing you to skip from page 1 to page 8 without swiping 7 times. If Apple provided this as one of the home button behavior alternatives, would you use this? It seems to me like the primary use would be launching a specific app; if that’s the case, why not just use search – which can already be tied to the home button?



Article By MobileCrunch

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Windows 8 and More Leaked

The version of Windows that succeeds Windows 7 will include a 128-bit architecture, according to an embarrassing leak from Microsoft's research and development team in the US.

Microsoft employee Robert Morgan appeared to detail the software giant's plans for Windows 8, and even Windows 9, on business networking site LinkedIn, where he listed his job as 'senior research and development'. His profile has now been removed from the main LinkedIn site, but is still viewable in Google's search cache.In it, he says he's "working in high security department for research and development involving strategic planning for medium and longterm projects."

He goes on to say his R&D projects include: "128-bit architecture compatibility with the Windows 8 kernel and Windows 9 project plan." He's also responsible for "forming relationships with major partners: Intel, AMD, HP and IBM."

Windows 7, due to become available worldwide on October 22, is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. (See "Windows 7 Performance Tests.")

Indeed, we've had the option of 64-bit versions of Windows since Windows XP Professional x64 Edition was launched May 2005. But while XP's successor, Vista, is also available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, the latter has failed to take off in a big way.

64-bit computers, which can address more RAM and are theoretically more powerful than 32-bit equivalents, are likely to become more popular with Windows 7. A 128-bit version of Windows 8 would represent the next leap in performance.

According to Microsoft's plans to release a new desktop version of Windows every three years, Windows 8 is scheduled to become available in 2012.

Tap Tap Revenge 3 Has Now Landed

Tap Tap Revenge 3 Link is HERE

Tapulous’s latest update to its massively successful Tap Tap Revenge franchise will soon be live on the App Store. It looks as though the app was supposed to be live by now according to an article on TUAW, though it doesn’t appear to be available quite yet (we’ll update with a link as soon as it is). The new app brings with it plenty of gameplay enhancements, but the biggest change here is support for in-app song purchases. This means you’ll be able to choose from a roster of premium songs created by well known artists and buy the ones you like — giving users more choice than ever, and giving Tapulous a lucrative new source of revenue.

Gamers would have loved to be able to purchase songs in-game before now, but for the first year of the App Store’s existence Apple didn’t allow for that functionality at all, so Tapulous was forced to release standalone premium packs (as they did with Weezer, Nine Inch Nails, and others). These apps have done well, but Tapulous was always faced with the challenge of getting users to download an entirely new application with each release. Update: CEO Bart Decrem says that the company has sold over 500,000 premium apps at $5 each, so obviously they weren’t exactly struggling. Now they’re be able to sell track packs through a single application.

Up until now TTR’s flagship games have been free, which helped them get great distribution (the original Tap Tap Revenge was the most downloaded game of 2008), but has turned into something of a thorn in Tapulous’s side. With the release of the iPhone 3.0 software update this summer Apple finally allowed applications to offer in-app purchases, but they offered this option only for premium apps — that’s why TTR3 costs 99 cents. Tapulous will have to find a way to get its users on other apps to switch over to TTR3, but it should be able to facilitate the switch by cross-promoting in TTR1, 2 and the aforementioned premium apps.

The TUAW article includes a full listing of songs that will able available through the app, which are available as 6-track bundles for $2.99 and 2-song bundles for 99 cents.

Here’s a sampling of the tracks available:

BLINK 182 – “Adam’s Song” / “All the Small Things” / “Dammit” / “First Date” / “The Rock Show” / “What’s My Age Again”

FALL OUT BOY – “Thanks for the Memories” / “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” / “Dance, Dance” / “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” / “I Don’t Care” / “American Suitehearts”

FOO FIGHTERS – “The Pretender” / “Wheel” / “My Hero” / “Best of You” / “Monkey Wrench” / “All My Life”

THE KILLERS – “Mr. Brightside” / “Sweet Talk” / “Human” / “When We Were Young” / “All These Things That I’ve Done” / “Read My Mind”

We’ve been tracking the new version for some time now (the company had planned to have it out by the end of August but it was delayed). Among the features in the new version are over 100 free songs, custom themes and avatars, integrated chat, and a multiplayer online gaming arena.

HERE IS THE LINK FOR TTR3

Tap Tap Revenge 3 Landing Any Hour Now

Tapulous’s latest update to its massively successful Tap Tap Revenge franchise will soon be live on the App Store. It looks as though the app was supposed to be live by now according to an article on TUAW, though it doesn’t appear to be available quite yet (we’ll update with a link as soon as it is). The new app brings with it plenty of gameplay enhancements, but the biggest change here is support for in-app song purchases. This means you’ll be able to choose from a roster of premium songs created by well known artists and buy the ones you like — giving users more choice than ever, and giving Tapulous a lucrative new source of revenue.

Gamers would have loved to be able to purchase songs in-game before now, but for the first year of the App Store’s existence Apple didn’t allow for that functionality at all, so Tapulous was forced to release standalone premium packs (as they did with Weezer, Nine Inch Nails, and others). These apps have done well, but Tapulous was always faced with the challenge of getting users to download an entirely new application with each release. Update: CEO Bart Decrem says that the company has sold over 500,000 premium apps at $5 each, so obviously they weren’t exactly struggling. Now they’re be able to sell track packs through a single application.

Up until now TTR’s flagship games have been free, which helped them get great distribution (the original Tap Tap Revenge was the most downloaded game of 2008), but has turned into something of a thorn in Tapulous’s side. With the release of the iPhone 3.0 software update this summer Apple finally allowed applications to offer in-app purchases, but they offered this option only for premium apps — that’s why TTR3 costs 99 cents. Tapulous will have to find a way to get its users on other apps to switch over to TTR3, but it should be able to facilitate the switch by cross-promoting in TTR1, 2 and the aforementioned premium apps.

The TUAW article includes a full listing of songs that will able available through the app, which are available as 6-track bundles for $2.99 and 2-song bundles for 99 cents.

Here’s a sampling of the tracks available:

BLINK 182 – “Adam’s Song” / “All the Small Things” / “Dammit” / “First Date” / “The Rock Show” / “What’s My Age Again”

FALL OUT BOY – “Thanks for the Memories” / “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” / “Dance, Dance” / “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” / “I Don’t Care” / “American Suitehearts”

FOO FIGHTERS – “The Pretender” / “Wheel” / “My Hero” / “Best of You” / “Monkey Wrench” / “All My Life”

THE KILLERS – “Mr. Brightside” / “Sweet Talk” / “Human” / “When We Were Young” / “All These Things That I’ve Done” / “Read My Mind”

We’ve been tracking the new version for some time now (the company had planned to have it out by the end of August but it was delayed). Among the features in the new version are over 100 free songs, custom themes and avatars, integrated chat, and a multiplayer online gaming arena.