After the desktop stalwarts of Windows 7 and Mac OS, the world’s third most popular platform for web browsing turns out to be Apple’s iOS. The software that makes iPhones, iPod touches and iPads tick has been identified by Net Applications as responsible for over two percent of the global traffic data analyzed in the web statistician’s latest report — the first time iOS has crossed that threshold. The UK and Australia had more than five percent each, while the USA clocked in at 3.4 percent. Leaving operating systems aside, Chrome has continued its steady growth on the browser front and now stands at a 10.7 percent share, more than doubling its slice from this time last year. Internet Explorer overall has dipped to its lowest level yet, at 56 percent, however Net Applications indicates IE8 is showing nice growth. So at least it’s looking like we’re finally ready to bury the zombies known as IE6 and IE7, whatever other browser we choose to migrate to.
Nintendo has confirmed that, while the new Nintendo 3DS will arrive in the US on March 27 and in Europe on March 25, 3D gamers will have to wait longer for the 3DS eShop. CEO Satoru Iwata told GamesIndustry that not only will the game store be delayed until May 2011, the 3DS will also not have a browser to begin with.
Neither was initially expected to be preloaded onto the 3DS, but Nintendo had previously expected to have the eShop and browser ready alongside the commercial release of the console. Now, the download store will be “drastically redesigned” versus the existing DSiWare store, which Iwata criticized as slow and inefficient at highlighting the best titles. “”It is critical in digital software distribution” Iwata suggested “that the software available there won’t be buried and go unnoticed.”
First Mozilla detailed its “do not track” system for Firefox, and now Google has announced its own version for Chrome. Keep My Opt-Outs is a Chrome browser extension that takes advantage of ad industry regulations around personalized web adverts; basically, it lets surfers permanently opt out of ad tracking.
“Keep in mind that once you install the Keep My Opt-Outs extension, your experience of online ads may change: You may see the same ads repeatedly on particular websites, or see ads that are less relevant to you.” Google
Now, as with the Firefox system, this relies on the ads being served by one of the 50+ companies which support the opt-out program – there’s no way to blacklist other ad servers, for instance. Google plans to develop versions for other browsers, and the Keep My Opt-Outs code is open-source.
Mozilla’s Global Privacy and Public Policy Leader, Alex Fowler, has detailed the upcoming Do Not Track functionality headed to Firefox. As Mozilla envisages it, the system “allows users to set a browser preference that will broadcast their desire to opt-out of third party, advertising-based tracking by transmitting a Do Not Track HTTP header with every click or page view in Firefox.”
Mozilla believes this is a more inclusive and comprehensive route than maintaining blacklists or cookies, though it does recognize that it relies on sites to fall into line and respect the “Don Not Track” user preference. The approach differs from Microsoft’s strategy for IE9, which will rely on “anti-tracking lists” onto which users can put approved and unapproved sites.
Word from Mozilla is that one of the top crashers of Mozilla Firefox 3.6.13 (current version) is the Skype toolbar. This toolbar works with Firefox to detect phone numbers in webpages, turning them into clickable buttons. This extension is bundled with Skype and is clicked to be installed by default whenever someone downloads or updates Skype. Now Mozilla has found that over the past week this toolbar has been responsible for almost 40,000 crashes of Firefox. That’s a lot.
Of course it really depends on the version of Skype Toolbar your using, but furthermore this toolbar uses some methods to detect and re-render phone numbers that will make your DOM manipulation 300 times slower – this effects a large percentage of web content today and is therefor making your whole experience totally crappy. What is Mozilla doing about it?
First, blocklisting the extension: all versions of Skype Toolbar have been added to Mozilla Firefox Blocklist. This is what they call a “soft block” where the extension is temporarily disabled while you the user are notified of the potential problem, at which time you’re able to either choose to continue working with it or to get rid of it entirely.
Bugs associated with this situation are: bug 615799 and bug 627278, and the full blocklist entry will be added sometime in the next 48 hours.
RIM has outed another BlackBerry PlayBook demo video, this time showing the QNX tablet’s browser in action. As well as streaming HTML5 video, the demo shows Flash-based gaming and social networks like Facebook, including support for things like Facebook chat.
Video demo after the cut
As you’d hope, being an official demo, the PlayBook puts in a good showing. Pinch-zooming is smooth, even when pages are rendering, and in-page video clips from sites like YouTube work as you’d expect. We’re still reserving judgement until we can have a play ourselves, but so far things are looking solid.
LG is expected to launch its Tegra 2 based Android Optimus 2X smartphone at CES 2011 this week, but the few units floating around in the wild in South Korea have led to some early testing up against the iPhone 4. Android Arena spotted a video pitting the Optimus 2X against the Apple smartphone in a browser speed test, and while it’s far from scientific, the Android handset does seem to hold its own.
While the Android fans will likely be ecstatic to see the LG rendering pages well in advance of what the iPhone 4 can manage, without knowing details about the testing – such as which connection was used, what cached files were available, and other information – we’re cautious not to get too excited from these early indications. Still, we’re already plenty excited about the Optimus 2X anyway, so we’ll happily wait until LG make the handset official later on this week before doing some benchmarking of our own.
Opera has announced a new touch browser for tablets and netbooks, Opera for Tablets, which will make its official debut at CES 2011 later this week. Demonstrated on a Samsung Galaxy Tab, the browser looks reasonably similar to Opera Mini, already available for Android devices, though scaled somewhat to suit a tablet-sized touchscreen.
Video demo after the cut
Full functionality is yet to be revealed, but in the video below you can see pinch-zooming in action together with some pretty slick scrolling. There’s also Opera’s usual multi-shortcut paned homescreen, for easier access to your favorites.
Press Release:
Opera unveils touch browser for tablet and netbook PCs
Las Vegas, Nevada – January 3, 2011
If you were nice in 2010 then there is a good chance Santa left you one of the hottest gifts of the year – a tablet. Now that it is January you are probably looking for ways to get the most of out of your tablet. Luckily, Santa has some special Norwegian helpers who worked all through the holidays to kick off the New Year with a browser designed especially for tablets.
At the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2011, Opera Software will unveil the first public preview of Opera for tablets. Whether it’s checking email, managing social networks or surfing the net, Opera’s specialized browser for tablets provides you with the smoothest tablet and netbook experience on the market.
“In 2011, tablets are a new must-have. Opera is creating waves with the first public preview of Opera for tablets,” said Christen Krogh, Chief Development Officer, Opera Software. “Opera for tablets brings the same trusted Internet experience to tablets and netbook PCs as users have come to love on their mobile phones and desktops.”
If there’s one thing the 90s taught us, it’s that these silly 2D interfaces are only a passing fancy, and soon everything will be VRML-based mirror worlds of our physical space. SurfCube is a small, tentative step in that direction, turning the browser into a fake 3D experience of sorts, with favorites on “top,” and history and settings on the “sides,” while the front face of the cube is, naturally, the browser part. You can get around with swipes and flashy tilt gestures, and for $1.99 on the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace it’s hard to go wrong. Just remember our VRML warning, and start investing in MicroVideoGoggles Inc. stock with your carphone once you get home from the record store.
Internet Explorer 9 has been praised for its malware-blocking abilities, with researchers NSS Labs finding [pdf link] the Microsoft browser was more than five times more likely to protect surfers from socially-engineered malware than Firefox 3.6. Looking solely at “a web page link that directly leads to a download that delivers a malicious payload whose content type would lead to execution, or more generally a website known to host malware links” – i.e. fake downloads as often seen on Facebook or Twitter – the research found IE9 capable of blocking 99-percent of the threats encountered.
The nearest alternative was Internet Explorer 8, which blocked 90-percent. NSS Labs credit SmartScreen URL filtering, included in IE8 and IE9, for the strong showing; only IE9 has SmartScreen application reputation protection, however, hence the difference in results.
Meanwhile, Apple’s Safari 5 languished with 11-percent of threats blocked, Chrome 6 did even worse with 3-percent, and Opera 10 failed to block any of the downloads. Around 636 URLs were included in the testing, and interestingly – as shown in the following chart – despite both Safari 5 and Firefox 3.6 each using Google’s Safe Browser feed, the two apps seemingly implemented it in different ways.
First Mozilla detailed its 
