Archive for the ‘Software’ Category

File Under: Browsers, HTML5, Software
Jun
7
2010

Apple (Almost) Releases Safari 5

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A press release with details about Safari 5 was leaked on the web Monday afternoon, then promptly removed.

Many were expecting Apple to release a new version of its Safari web browser during the Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) taking place this week. But the Monday morning keynote was all about the new iPhone. Safari wasn’t discussed.

Then, at about 3:30pm Pacific time, a press release went out over the PRNewsWire service. It was live for a short time — under 10 minutes — before it vanished. The link now returns an error. Apple has yet to update the Safari pages of its website or make any additional announcements. We’re guessing the news item was released mistakenly or prematurely.

Update @ 4:30pm: The release is now available on the Apple website, though the Safari pages still haven’t been updated.

It was live long enough for us to grab a copy, and you can read the full release below. Here are some details.

There’s an extensions framework now. By description alone, Safari Extensions appears to be similar to the lightweight extensions frameworks used by Google Chrome and Mozilla’s Jetpack for Firefox — extensions are written in HTML/JavaScript, installed on the fly, and sandboxed.

There’s also Reader, a built-in app that strips ads, images and other clutter out of the way, presenting news articles and longer reads in a simplified, scrolling, text-only window “without distraction.” Instapaper and Readability, it appears as though Apple is drinking your milkshake.

According to the release, the updated browser will include expanded support for the HTML5 stack, including geolocation, sectioning elements, drag and drop, form validation, Ajax history and WebSocket. There’s also “full screen playback and closed captions for HTML5 video” — though we should note that Apple currently only supports native playback of h.264 video and not WebM, which all other major browsers are backing. No further details there.

Safari 5 uses the new Nitro JavaScript engine, which Apple says is 30 percent faster than Safari 4′s engine. You also get the ability to choose Bing as your search provider (just like in the iPhone 4 demo).

Full release follows:

Continue Reading “Apple (Almost) Releases Safari 5″ »

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File Under: Browsers, Software
Jun
2
2010

Firefox 3.6.4 Isolates Flash for a More Stable Browser

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Mozilla has announced the first, and hopefully only, release candidate of Firefox 3.6.4, an incremental update which adds one significant new feature to Firefox 3.6 — plug-ins now run in separate processes. That means if Flash crashes, it won’t cause the entire browser to crash with it.

To give the new beta a try, head on over to the Firefox beta downloads page. If you’ve subscribed the beta channel in the past you’ll automatically get the update, or you can force Firefox to update using the “Check for Updates” menu item.

The new feature is known as “out-of-process” handling, and promises to make Firefox considerably more stable. Eventually, Mozilla plans to have each tab isolated in its own process as well, which will also increase stability. Once that feature is there, each web app would be cordoned off inside its own tab, so if one crashes, that single tab simply closes and the rest of the browser keeps cooking along as usual. Isolated tabs won’t arrive until Firefox 4, which is slated for later this year.

Isolated plug-ins and tabs are among the best things about Google Chrome. It’s had isolated tabs since its debut, and isolated plug-in handling arrived at the same time as Chrome Extensions.

With the release candidate available, look for the final version of Firefox 3.6.4 to ship in the next couple of weeks. If you just can’t wait, or would like to help test the latest build, head over to the Firefox beta download site. (Note that the build is still labeled “build 6,” but according to the post on the Mozilla Developer Network, this is the release candidate.)

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File Under: Software, Visual Design
Jun
2
2010

Photoshop Contemplates Adding Live HTML Layers

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Adobe’s Principal Product Manager of Photoshop, John Nack has posted an idea for a new Photoshop feature on his blog. Nack’s idea is to create a way of rendering HTML and CSS within Photoshop. This means visual designers could work with “live” HTML objects as they’re building websites within a team of programmers, easing the workflow between the designing and coding stages.

Before you get to excited (or disappointed) keep in mind that isn’t a feature, isn’t even part of a plan, it’s simply and idea that Nack would like feedback on.

Nack describes the idea (and workflow) like this: a designer creates a mockup, which he hands off to a programmer. The programmer then renders the mockup in HTML/CSS, at which point he could hand it back to the designer who can open it in Photoshop as a kind of live layer. Resizing and other layer actions would cause the code to respond according to how the programmer has written the code.

What Nack is envisioning is a smart layer that uses WebKit (already part of the Creative Suite) to render what he calls “programmable layers.”

Among the benefits Nack sees are “[live] pixel-accurate web rendering (text and shapes); the ability to style objects via CSS parameters (enabling effects like dotted lines); data-driven 2D and 3D graphics; and high fidelity web output (HTML as HTML).”

The real world example Nack uses is a calendar widget, but that particular example raises an interesting question — what about scripting languages? We don’t know of anyone who writes out calendar code in HTML, that would be insane to update. So if you’re generating the calendar with, say, PHP, where does the script rendering happen?

So far, the comments appear pretty evenly divided between those who think such a feature would be great and those think that either it’s just more bloat in Photoshop, or that Fireworks would be a better home for the idea.

If you’ve got strong opinions one way or the other, head over to Nack’s blog and let him know what you think, either in the comments or by completing this survey.

Just remember that this is not part of a roadmap and may well never happen. In the words of Douglas Adams, “Don’t panic.”

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File Under: Browsers, Software
Jun
1
2010

The Best Chrome Add-ons for Web Developers

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We love Google Chrome — it’s blazing fast and supports most of HTML5 and CSS 3. But when it comes to using a browser for web development tasks, it’s hard to beat Firefox. With add-ons like Firebug or the Web Developer extension, Mozilla’s browser is still the tool of choice for tweaking and testing pages.

If you’ve been looking for Chrome-based replacements — a better way to inspect code, test alternate resolutions, or quickly check a page’s validation status — the Chrome team has a new Chrome Developer Tools page with some very useful add-ons for web developers.

Sadly, there is no equivalent for Firebug (even the “light” version is no replacement for the real deal), but there are a number of great developer add-ons for Chrome that we hadn’t noticed before.

Speed Tracer is a decent substitute for Yahoo’s YSlow add-on for Firefox. Speed Tracer helps identify and suggest fixes for performance issues. The Web Developer extension (written by Chris Pederick, the same person who did the Firefox version) gives you quick access to validators and offers page resizing and a CSS elements viewer.

Other nice extensions include Chrome Editor, which allows you to make live edits without needing to jump between your text editor and web browser. There’s also, JSonView, which lets you see JSON data, and PHP Documentation, which gives you quick access to PHP’s extensive documentation.

If you’re a heavy Firebug user, there’s nothing here that’s going to convince you to switch from Firefox to Chrome for web development. But if you’ve already made the switch and are looking for some additional web development tools this collection of Chrome add-ons has you covered.

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File Under: Software, Web Apps
May
28
2010

Google Reader Dumps Offline Access, Old Browsers

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Google Reader is losing some features. As of June 1, Reader will no longer offer offline access and users of older browsers will see a notice suggesting they upgrade to a newer browser with support for current web standards.

The browser support change isn’t all that surprising; Google Docs made a similar change earlier this year. The main target of the policy change is Internet Explorer 6. But lest you think Google Reader is picking on Microsoft, the announcement also targets the company’s own Chrome 3, which is barely six months old.

Other browsers no longer supported include Firefox 1 and 2.0, and Safari 2.0 and 3.0.

According Mihai Parparita, a technical lead for Google Reader, the new browser requirements will enable Google Reader to spend more time on new features. “Reader is a cutting-edge web application, and this will allow us to spend our time improving Reader instead of fixing issues with antiquated browsers,” he writes on the official Reader blog.

Older web browsers aren’t the only thing Reader is leaving behind. Also like Google Docs, Reader will be ditching the Gears-powered offline support (launched back in 2007). However, unlike Google Docs, Reader won’t be replacing Gears with HTML5-based offline tools. With Reader, Google is simply dropping offline support for the time being.

Instead, the Google Reader blog suggests downloading desktop software that syncs to Reader and downloads your items. While that’s certainly one way to sync feeds and read them offline, the main point of the orginal offline support was that it worked in the browser without the need for extra desktop apps.

The Reader team claims that only a small percentage of users ever took advantage of the offline support. But for those that did, there’s really no substitute.

The good news is that the Reader team claims this bit of “Spring cleaning” will pave the way for new features and improvements in Google Reader. Without the need to support older browsers, Reader will presumably be able to take advantage of things like HTML5 and CSS 3, though so far Google has given no hints as to what any new features might entail.

In the meantime, you’ll have to switch to a syncing app if you want to read Google Reader items without a web connection. Some of the more popular ones for the iPhone/iPod are Feeds, Byline and Reeder. For the desktop, there’s FeedDemon, NetNewsWire and RSS Bandit. For Android, we like NewsRob and Feedr. Let us know about your favorite in the comments.

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