If you’re so inclined you can use my articles section to keep up with my latest musings, comment on my thoughts, or even just to distract yourself at work.
In the ever-changing world of web browsers it is vital - as a web designer - that I keep track of browser updates and new browser releases.
As a recent example, Google Chrome, a foray into the web browser market from the search giant has made significant inroads, overtaking Apple’s Safari in market share already.
No method of measuring browser statistics is 100% accurate, however by looking at a few different sources it’s possible to get a pretty good idea of current worldwide usage.
So what are the results?
The battle for first place is still being fought by Internet Explorer and Firefox. Internet Explorer 8 has taken the lead again by a very small margin of a couple of percentage points up against Firefox 3.5.
In many ways this can be seen as good news because it means that both Microsoft and Mozilla are working hard on improving their browsers as much as possible.
The best news however, is that Internet Explorer 6 has finally dropped below 10% in total usage! Probably the bane of most web designers around the world, it’ll be a day worth celebrating when IE6 is put to death.
Safari has seen little growth, however a surge should probably be expected once statistics for the iPad and iPhone 4 start to filter through.
As I mentioned earlier in this article, Google Chrome really is performing the best out of all web browsers at the moment. It has attained 50% growth within six months taking it to a 9.9% market share.
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Apple has released Safari 5, the latest version of its Web browser, with a touted 30 percent performance increase, Bing search (in addition to Yahoo and Google) and extensions, as well as support for new HTML5 technologies.
The update is available for both Mac and Windows.
Another new feature is called Safari Reader, which makes it easy to read single and multi-page articles on the web by presenting them in a new, scrollable view without any additional content or clutter. When Safari 5 detects an article, users can click on the Reader icon in the Smart Address Field to display the entire article for clear, uninterrupted reading with options to enlarge, print or send via email.
Safari 5 adds more than a dozen powerful HTML5 features that allow web developers to create media-rich experiences, including full screen playback and closed captions for HTML5 video. Other new HTML5 features in Safari 5 include HTML5 Geolocation, HTML5 sectioning elements, HTML5 draggable attribute, HTML5 forms validation, HTML5 Ruby, HTML5 AJAX History, EventSource and WebSocket.
Whilst all this functionality is great and wonderful to get to grips with, in real world use it isn’t that practical yet for a web designer.
Safari and it’s webkit rendering engine is steaming ahead of the competing browsers - Internet Explorer (of course) is still languishing somewhere in the equivalent of the MIddle Ages in web browser terms - so implementing the new technologies on a day to day basis is still a fair way off.
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Facebook has begun sending out emails to users and advertising partners detailing the much publicised changes to their privacy controls.
There has been a lot of fuss lately in the media concerning how ‘open’ Facebook members’ data is when their profiles are not adjusted from the default privacy settings.
In summary, the update will:
- Provide an easy-to-use “master” control that enables users to set who can see the content they share through Facebook. This enables users to choose, with just one click, the overall privacy level they’re comfortable with for the content they share on Facebook. Of course, users can still use all of the granular controls we’ve always offered, if they wish.
- Significantly reduce the amount of information that must be visible to everyone on Facebook. Facebook will no longer require that users’ friends and connections are visible to everyone. Only Name, Profile Picture, Networks and Gender must be publicly available. Users can opt to make all other connections private.
- Make it simple to control whether other applications and websites access any user information. While a majority of our users love Facebook apps and Facebook-enhanced websites, some may prefer not to share their information outside of Facebook. Users can now opt out with just one click.
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I discovered this very useful list of handy Google Chrome extensions if you’re a web designer.
It appears the fledging browser is starting to give Firefox a run for it’s money.
Read the article at Six Revisions.
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According to the BBC the, erm, BBC is to release a few iPhone applications in April.
I’ve always been quite mystified on why it has taken the corporation so long to enter the mobile phone market. They were industry leaders when it came to implementing the extremely successful iPlayer (much to the annoyance of ISPs who are somewhat miffed about the bandwidth being consumed).
Hopefully they’ll release apps that are useful and do the job successfully.
They are initially planning to release News and Sports apps that include audio and video - something that may just leapfrog them past the current popular offerings. At a later date they are considering creating and app specifically for the iPlayer. Currently iPhone users are automatically redirected to an iPhone optimised version of the on-demand site.
My personal favourite news app is provided by the Guardian. You do have to pay for it (£2.39), but for me it’s worth every penny.According to the BBC the, erm, BBC is to release a few iPhone applications in April.
I’ve always been quite mystified on why it has taken the corporation so long to enter the mobile phone market. They were industry leaders when it came to implementing their extremely successful iPlayer (much to the annoyance of ISPs who are somewhat miffed about the bandwidth being consumed).
Hopefully they’ll release apps that are useful and do the job successfully.
They are initially planning to release News and Sports apps that include audio and video - something that may just leapfrog them past the current popular offerings. At a later date they are considering creating and app specifically for the iPlayer. Currently iPhone users are automatically redirected to an iPhone optimised version of the on-demand site.
My personal favourite news app is provided by the Guardian. You do have to pay for it (£2.39), but for me it’s worth every penny.
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After what may be the longest break possible from adding new tracks to the site (real life seems to always get in the way), I have finally completed and uploaded my new track ‘Make My Body Rock’.
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This is possibly the best parody I’ve seen since the recent release of the Apple iPad (still really not sure on that name). Even better, it was made before the iPad was even a twinkle in Steve Jobs eye.
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The geriatric Internet Explorer 6 Microsoft web browser is the equivalent of a person that no-one really likes, but puts up with and supports because of a misplaced sense of duty.
As pretty well any web designer will tell you, supporting IE6 is a royal pain. In fact I wrote an article about it last year.
At least another of the big web daddies has also started to withdraw support. Google has now given IE6 its marching orders.
About time.
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You may or may not be living in a paranoid dictatorship, but if I ever saw a compelling reason to update to the latest version of Internet Explorer or try out another browser, this is it.
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A short delay between uploads I agree and still soooooo much more to do. I have a few more completed waiting in the wings to be mastered but the ‘real world’ intends for me to be busy with other things at the moment.
Anyway, you can probably hear it already as it’s now first on the playlist, if not, just click on the ‘Are You Ready to Dance?’ title in the MP3 player.
Happy listening. Comments (constructive) are more than welcome.
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