Ilya Kozhevnikov

Browser Newsletter #19

March 27, 2008

Review: New Browser Eases Web Sharing

Many people now create and share content on the Internet or blend services from various sites in their daily tasks, reflecting the medium’s clear evolution from a place for simply consuming Web sites.

The upcoming version of Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer, version 8, embraces those trends by adding an “Activities” feature that makes all that easier for PC users. Although it’s still in a “beta” test mode meant mostly for Web designers to try out, I’m liking what I’m seeing so far.

Read more…
© The Washington Post, 19/03/08

Adobe realizes SDK not enough for Flash on iPhone

Adobe has admitted it can’t bring Flash to the iPhone just because it thinks that would be a neat idea.

Comments made Tuesday by Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen were widely interpreted Wednesday morning as confirmation that Adobe and Apple have figured out a way to make Flash available on the iPhone. Unfortunately, that’s not exactly what Narayen said, and the company has now also clarified that it can’t simply use the iPhone software development kit to bring Flash to the iPhone unless Apple approves.

Narayen’s comments weren’t exactly definitive, but they were judged by several media outlets to be a confirmation of Adobe and Apple’s plans to put a Flash player on the iPhone. They aren’t; they’re merely a statement of what Adobe would like to do with Flash. Wishing things to happen and actually making them happen are sort of different.

Apple nips at Nokia in mobile browser wars

Apple’s mobile Safari browser, which runs on the iPhone and iPod Touch, is the number-two mobile browser in the UK and number one in the US, according to StatCounter.

The research firm said that the iPhone took 0.06 per cent of the total internet browser market in the UK in March.

This included mobile and desktop browsers, and put the application behind Nokia which claimed a 0.15 per cent share.

Mozilla says Firefox 3 ready for prime-time

A new version of Mozilla’s popular Firefox Web browser is ready for download with improved security and memory use as the tiny company takes a stab at Microsoft Corp’s dominant Internet Explorer.

The program’s creators told Reuters on Thursday that the privately-held company’s trial version of Firefox 3 browser is ready for the masses to use after months of development.

Until now, the company has discouraged average Internet users from moving on from Firefox 2, which was launched in October 2006.

“In many ways it (Firefox 3) is much more stable than anything else out there,” Mozilla Corp Vice President of Engineering Mike Schroepfer said in an interview.

Add-on Management Improvements in Internet Explorer 8

One of our goals with Internet Explorer 8 was to improve the experience of managing add-ons by bringing more types of add-ons into the management experience, and to make that experience more usable. Originally introduced in Windows XP Service Pack 2, we’ve updated the management UI in a big way for IE8.

Here’s a screen shot of the new UI

Opera Mini dives into Helio’s Ocean

Not content with just having one of the world’s best free mobile phone browsers available for virtually any modern cellphone, Opera are doing deals with major mobile manufacturers to have Opera Mini as an official alternative, with Helio being their first US phone customer.

Apple Takes the Spyware-Style Low Road, Pushing Safari on Windows

Debate is raging today over the news that Steve Jobs has made good on his summertime promise and is now sending Apple’s browser Safari along for the ride when Windows users are prompted to update iTunes or Quicktime.

Users can deselect the additional software download, but let’s be realistic - there’s got to be millions of people unwittingly downloading Safari onto their computers right now. Downloading software has to be opt-in, not opt-out.

Safari’s market share among browsers is tiny but there are better ways to tackle that problem. Mozilla CEO John Lilly wrote today that Apple’s tactic could make users skeptical of official software updates and leave them vulnerable to security exploits. That seems like a fair criticism it levy. How many ways can you think of that Apple could grow its market share through innovation, instead of lowdown tactics like this?

Apple ‘forcing’ Safari on XP iTunes users - ‘choice’ or click trickery?

If you’ve got iTunes installed on your Windows XP computer, you’ve also got the ‘Apple Software Updater’ installed. It’s there to ensure you’re always informed of the latest iTunes update, but now it will also have Safari 3.1 ‘ticked’ by default, ready to download and install when you click the ‘install’ button. Is this right - or wrong?

For years, software companies have tried to ‘foist’ other programs onto our computers when we install their software, with the latest company to be accused of such shenanigans being Apple with their latest browser, Safari 3.1 – with the CEO of Mozilla Firefox crying foul.

The most common example today is a plethora of companies offering the ‘Google Toolbar’ as a pre-ticked option when installing software, with the Adobe Acrobat PDF reader and Real Player 11 but two companies whose software does this.

Bridging Desktop And Web Applications - A Look At Mozilla Prism

New platforms like Adobe Air and Mozilla Prism are evolving that combine the benefits of Internet flow with the flexibility and power of desktop applications. They are part browser, part desktop app and are extremely efficient for certain types of applications.

Flash, Silverlight and Ajax get most web applications over the hump in terms of usability and are the technologies behind the fast transition of desktop applications to the web. But it’s not clear that they’ll ever kill off all desktop applications entirely. The bridge between them may very well be Air and/or Prism.

Matthew Gertner, who was a co-founder and CTO of startup AllPeers before it shut down earlier this year, is now working with Mozilla on their Prism project. I asked him to write a guest post discussing Prism and how it fits into the ecosystem v. Air as well as a number of emerging technologies for using web applications offline (Firefox 3, Google Gears).

Firefox boss slams Apple for trying to sneak Safari onto Windows PCs

John Lilly, the chief executive of Mozilla, has attacked Apple for what looks like a deceptive attempt to get Windows users to install its Safari browser as an “update” when it’s no such thing.

What Apple is doing now with their Apple Software Update on Windows is wrong. It undermines the trust relationship great companies have with their customers, and that’s bad — not just for Apple, but for the security of the whole Web.

Key events and Safari 3.1

There has been a change in Safari 3.1 for how keypress events are handled. John Resig interviewed Yehuda Katz to get the skinny and understand why this was done.

People should not have been using the keypress event to get the character that was pressed. That’s because the keydown event only provides information about the actual key that was pressed (the A key, the right arrow, etc.), but does not tell the user what character will get added to (for instance) an input box.

Firefox chief fumes over Apple Safari update

Mozilla chief executive John Lilly has hit out at Apple, accusing the company of doing a disservice to Windows users everywhere by including its Safari browser as a default add-on installation in the latest iTunes update, likening the practice to the way malware is distributed.

In a recent blog post, the head of the foundation behind the Firefox browser and Thunderbird email client attacked Apple for including the option to install the browser as a pre-selected default, saying it compromises the security of all users and the entire web.

“Apple has made it incredibly easy — the default, even — for users to install ride-along software that they didn’t ask for and maybe didn’t want. This is wrong, and borders on malware distribution practices,” said Lilly in the post.

Browser Newsletter #19

Review: New Browser Eases Web Sharing

Adobe realizes SDK not enough for Flash on iPhone

Apple nips at Nokia in mobile browser wars

Mozilla says Firefox 3 ready for prime-time

Add-on Management Improvements in Internet Explorer 8

Opera Mini dives into Helio’s Ocean

Apple Takes the Spyware-Style Low Road, Pushing Safari on Windows

Apple ‘forcing’ Safari on XP iTunes users - ‘choice’ or click trickery?

Bridging Desktop And Web Applications - A Look At Mozilla Prism

Firefox boss slams Apple for trying to sneak Safari onto Windows PCs

Key events and Safari 3.1

Firefox chief fumes over Apple Safari update

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