browsers

Only yesterday Opera Mini 4.2 beta joined Google's Android Market. On Tuesday, the mini update to Opera's mobile browser for Java phones became the app's new benchmark.

The version 4.2 release appears identical to the beta version (review), made available for download just two weeks before. It boasts speeds up to 30 percent faster, a modified video playback that triggers a media player to stream a video, greater multilingual support, and the reintroduction of skins, a visual extra that had made a short hiatus when Opera upgraded Mini to version 4.0.

In addition, Opera'… Read more

Opera Mini 4.2 beta, a test version released for Java phones just two weeks ago, on Monday became the first third-party browser available for Google Android.

Opera Mini for Android, which was previewed in April, includes most of the familiar Mini 4.2 features: zooming, saving, bookmarking, and searching for in-line text has stayed intact, as has syncing via Opera Link and swapping skins.

We couldn't make the video playback workaround that debuted on other Java phones work in this build, though T-Mobile's USA's G1 phone does support video playback (see our review on TuneWiki.) We … Read more

Whatever we may think about the causes of the current market meltdown, free markets do tend to heal themselves over time. Hence, it was only a matter of time before someone would come along and give Microsoft a run for its money in its core businesses, Windows and Office.

What was less clear, however, was just how much a giveaway--the browser--was going to become central to it all, as applications and data are increasingly being run in "the cloud" with the browser being used to access them.

As I noted on Friday, Microsoft is under considerable threat from Mozilla's Firefox browser … Read more

17Lamp.net reports on one big feature that China's version of the Firefox browser has that the rest of the world still lacks: Live Margins.

What is the Live Margins feature? It's easier seen than explained, and can be viewed here. 17Lamp.net translates:

It's a new sidebar on the right, and apparently it is "a unique solution to the longstanding problem of tab browsing where only one tab is visible at any time." But it also gives "additional search results, relevant information, music, video, and much more." (It) is also localized, including … Read more

CNET's Ina Fried reports that Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 won't surface until 2009. With a release candidate not scheduled until the first quarter of 2009, the final release won't hit until the second (or possibly even the third) quarter. Microsoft released a beta of IE8 back in March 2008. Roughly a year later, we should see the full release in action.

By that time, will anyone care?

Yes, Microsoft continues to dominate the browser market with 71.3 percent market share, according to Net Applications, so, the majority of Internet users will continue to use IE. But … Read more

Here's a fairly new, fairly stealth specimen for all you mobile browser buffs. The Iris Browser is a beta-only offering produced by Torch Mobile, a start-up that presented at last week's Under the Radar conference.

While the beta for Windows Mobile phones 5+ is publicly available, consumers won't likely be able to download it themselves in its full incarnation. The company will convert beta testers' feedback into a more robust product to sell to manufacturers, who will brand the browser as their own.

I've been trying out the Iris Browser nonetheless--it's got a full enough … Read more

Microsoft plans to offer one more public test version of Internet Explorer 8 before releasing the final version of the updated browser, the company said late Wednesday.

The next test, essentially a "release candidate" version will come in the first quarter of 2009. That means the final release won't hit Microsoft's initial goal of finishing the browser this year.

"Our next public release of IE (typically called a "release candidate") indicates the end of the beta period," general manager Dean Hachamovitch said in a blog posting. "We want the technical community … Read more

Internet Explorer dominates the Web browser market, but are that many people so in love with it? Meanwhile, the Flash player dominates its segment because lots of people find it to be a terrific. So might Adobe one day decide that the next logical step is to try its hand at building its own Web browser?

Turns out that's not such a crazy idea. Following the completion of Adobe's acquisition of Macromedia in 2005, the company's brass actually toyed with the idea.

"We looked at making our own browser," said Adobe's chief technology officer, … Read more

The Mozilla Foundation pulled in $75 million in revenue in 2007, the "vast majority" of it from a search partnership with Google, the Firefox backer plans to announce Wednesday.

"Mozilla is well positioned to remain vital and effective during the current difficult economic times," according to Mozilla Chairman Mitchell Baker in a blog post about the foundation's 2007 results. The revenue includes that of both the foundation and its for-profit subsidiary, Mozilla Corp., that's focused on developing Firefox and related open-source browser technology.

The revenue increased about 12 percent from 2006, when Mozilla garnered $66.8 million in revenue. … Read more