Articles about Browser

It’s the end of another month and the end of another busy week of software releases. If you’ve been too caught up with other things to keep an eye on the titles that have been hitting the download servers over the past seven days, this roundup will bring you up to speed.

Tomahawk 0.5.5 is a social media player that enables you to play your local music collection as well as tracks from the web, and also enables you to browse through the collections of your friends. If you’re keen to share your musical taste with your friends, look no further than ON AIR 4.0.0.834, which will automatically update your Skype status with the track you are currently listening to.

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Hot on the heels of its official launch of OS X Mountain Lion, Apple has also updated its own web browser for Lion users. Safari 6 for Lion includes some of the improvements found in the browser shipped with Mountain Lion, while missing out on others.

Key improvements found in Safari 6 for Lion include a unified search and Address bar, bringing Safari into line with rival browsers. It also sees the introduction of an Offline Reading List, Do Not Track privacy feature and new password pane.

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Going online means having to decide which web browser you’re going to use to find your way around the Internet. If security is your primary concern, a new browser just entered the arena and vies for attention. If Comodo IceDragon sounds familiar, you’ve probably been put in mind of Comodo Dragon, the security focused web browser based on Chromium. IceDragon is very much the same idea but this time around there is a Mozilla core.

Comodo have recognized that not everyone wants to use the same web browser just to get the benefits of added security, and Chrome is not a browser that suits everyone. The unveiling of a Mozilla based version of the same tool opens up a world of more secure web browsing to a wider audience. If you are already a Firefox user, you’ll be pleased to find that your bookmarks history, passwords and more can be imported into IceDragon.

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This has been another action-packed week for software releases, but it is one dominated by one name -- Microsoft Office 2013 Consumer Preview. The latest version of Microsoft’s office suite has received a public preview, meaning that anyone keen to get a glimpse of the Windows 8-friendly, metro-interface suite can do so right now.

Olympic fever is starting to take hold and two new mobile apps BBC Olympics 1.0.0 (UK ONLY) and London 2012: Official Join In App for the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2.0 have been released to help you to keep up to date with the latest news and events, whether you are attending or not.

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Just days after opening a new Microsoft investigation, European antitrust regulators have broadened the scope. The software giant already faces possible multi-billion dollar sanctions for non-compliance with a 2009 agreement. European Windows users are supposed to get browser choice, but a ballot box mysteriously disappeared when Windows 7 Service Pack 1 released in February 2011. The European Competition Commission has since added Windows 8 to the investigation.

The agreement, which expires at the end of 2014, requires that a browser choice screen must appear in all copies of Windows, including version 8. The browser choice screen allows a dozen alternate third-party browsers to be shown as options for installation besides Internet Explorer -- when starting IE each time, or starting Windows for the first time. Microsoft faces new allegations the browser choice screen is missing from the final version of Windows 8 and Windows RT.

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The recent release of Firefox 14 FINAL means the whole developmental cycle has moved on again, and as expected versions 15 (Beta), 16 (Aurora) and 17 (Nightly/UX) of Mozilla’s web browser have made their first appearances. Version 14 was a relatively minor release after the excitement of version 13, but versions 15 and 16 both promise some exciting new features as we reveal below.

Get a head’s up on what’s coming and discover which build is best for your personal needs with our updated guide to what the future holds in store for Firefox.

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The European Union's Competition Commission surely isn’t on Microsoft’s Christmas gift list. Antitrust regulators are investigating the Redmond, Wash.-based corporation anew. The software giant allegedly failed to comply with a 2009 EU antitrust commitment to give Windows users option to choose their browser.

Microsoft is supposed to provide Windows users with a “browser ballot”. But that ballot is missing from Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and has been, for many users, for nearly 18 months.

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Mozilla has updated both its open-source browser and email clients with the release of both Firefox 14.0.1 FINAL, and Thunderbird 14.0 FINAL.

Firefox 14’s most notable new features are the switching on of secure connections when performing Google searches for better privacy, plus an updated site identity indicator system in the Address bar. It also introduces silent updates for Windows users for the first time, while OS X Lion users can enjoy native full-screen support for the first time. Thunderbird 14 contains no new features of note, in line with its recent move to an extended support phase.

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The second week of releases for July is a little different from other weeks in that there has been a greater number of Mac releases than usual. TRIM Enabler 2.2 is a great free tool that helps to improve the life of SSDs, and the latest version of the app includes support for a wider range of drives. Lion is proving to be the most popular version of OS X yet, and Lion Tweaks 2.0.1 is a free tweaking tool that can be used to customize the operating system and eliminate irritations, while CrystalClear Interface 2.7.4 enables you to completely change the appearance of OS X through the use of skins. If you want to be sure of a secure web connection whether you are at home or out and about with a laptop, Hotspot Shield 2.61 is a free proxy tool that protects your privacy and enables access to blocked web sites.

No week would be complete without its fair share of browser updates, and this week is no different in that respect. Chrome 21.1.1180.41 Beta is an interesting peak into the future of Google’s browser, and there is also a portable version of the software available in the form of Google Chrome Portable 21.1.1180.15 Beta. If you're keen to see what the future holds for Chrome, there is also Chrome 22.0.1201.0 Dev and again there is a portable version available -- Chrome Portable 22.0.1201.0 Dev.

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Torrents come in for a great deal of bad press due to the fact that they have become associated with piracy, but from the point of view of both the downloader and the provider of the download, things work out well in terms of improved download speeds and reduced bandwidth requirements. Downloading files in this way is easy enough, but by installing OneClick for Chrome you can make things even easier.

Once you have this Chrome extension installed, there is no need to use a torrent client to handle you downloads, and the torrents you choose to download are treated in much the same way as regular downloads. Using the extension means that Chrome can be used to handle your torrents, and there is no need to use a third party torrent client. This helps to keep things simple and speeds up the whole downloading process.

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There are some websites for which it makes sense to use cookies. Online stores use them to keep your basket up to date and many sites use cookies to store usernames and password to help speed up logging in. but there are also plenty of sites that use cookies and other tracking methods to deliver personalized advertisement to you as well as tracking your route across the internet. This is something that Disconnect for Chrome can help with.

This is a simple browser extension for Google Chrome, but the effect that it could have on your browsing experience is quite dramatic. Once you have Disconnect installed, you are placed firmly in control over which web sites you share information with, and you can block any you would rather were not able to track you.

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Mozilla's move to a rapid release process has been controversial. The company basically switched from a "when it is done or necessary" approach to a release cycle that would see a new major version release of the browser every six weeks, regardless of new features, improvements or fixes included in that release.

Mozilla's problem: part of the browser's user base does not welcome the change with open arms, as they feel that rapid release is to interrupting, unnecessary or breaks features or extensions that users grew accustomed to.

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Word of advice to cloud service providers: Don't get caught with your hand in the cookie jar. The Wall Street Journal reports that Google and the US Federal Trade Commission will soon announce a $22.5 million settlement. Google bypassed privacy settings on Apple’s Safari web browser, a practice later stopped, after being contacted by the Journal nearly six months ago.

Independent researchers found that of the top 100 websites, 22 installed the tracking code on a desktop computer, while on 23 sites code was successfully installed on the iPhone. Safari blocks such cookie tracking by default. At the time, Google claimed that the user tracking did not have any negative side-effects on its users, but that's hard to measure. Surely, advertisers benefited from the practice.

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Google has announced the release of Chrome 21 to the beta channel for Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome Frame. And while the new build won’t revolutionise your life overnight, it does include support for a couple of new APIs, which will make for richer web experiences in the future.

The first of these, the WebRTC getuserMedia API, allows users to give web access to their camera and microphone from within the browser, no plugin required. And a few web apps already show some of the creative possibilities: Paul Neave’s “Webcam Toy” uses WebGL fragment shaders to apply real-time special effects to the video, for instance.

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The halfway point of the year has come and gone, and as we slide our way through the calendar, there are more and more software releases to keep track of. If you’ve been busy through the first week of July, here are some of the highlights that you may have missed.

Starting off this week’s selection of titles are a number of tools with a connection to the Internet. Connectify Lite 3.5 is a great free tool that can be used to turn your laptop onto a WiFi hotspot that can be used by other laptops or mobile phones. If you want to use the Internet as a platform for your photography, jAlbum 10.8 can be used to share your photos online. ShareMeNot is a browser extension that can be used to prevent social networking buttons from tracking you line -- it is available as ShareMeNot for Firefox 2.0.1 and ShareMeNot for Chrome 1.0.

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