Tag: Browser
Quake Live is now open to all
Ever play much Quake 3? Lots of people did, and now you can enjoy that same twitchy deathmatch experience in your browser. Quake Live is now open for business to everyone, after an extensive closed beta. Oh, and did I mention it’s totally free?
Just point your browser to the Quake Live website, sit in a queue for a bit, install the plugin, restart your browser, sit in the queue for a bit longer, and then you’re in. The game ranks you by completing a 10-minute training match, and then you’re ready to go.
Technically, it’s less impressive than it seems. It basically just uses your browser as an interface for a program that runs on your PC. That said, though, the ranking and matchmaking system is sophisticated, pitting me mostly against people that weren’t a million miles better than me.
Developers ID Software make money from it from ads on the walls of the arenas, as well as advertising on the socreboards at the end of the matches, and in the border of the browser window.
You’ll find that the site’s rather busy right now, as it’s only just become available, but if you perservere, then the actual ingame experience is pretty good, even on an aging PC with a rubbish internet connection.
What’s your experience been of Quake Live, so far? Let us know in the comments.
Quake Live
Apple makes available Safari 4 beta
Safari, the default browser on Apple computers, has just been upgraded. The company claims the new beta is “the fastest and most inovating web browser for Mac and Windows PCs”.
Apple’s lifted some of the best features of other browsers – Chrome’s speed, Opera’s top sites, and tabs from Firefox (and everyone else, these days). They haven’t stolen anything from IE, but is there anything worth stealing there? They’ve also added a cover-flow style interface for browsing through your bookmarks too. Pretty, but a little pointless?
Interesting, Safari 4’s default UI on Windows looks like Windows, unlike previous versions where it looked like OSX. That’s a pretty significant change for a company that usually prides itself on its design.
If you want to try it out, it’s available from Apple’s website right now.
Safari 4 (via Tech Radar)
Extensions for Chrome confirmed
Google’s Chrome software, which is already my browser of choice, is getting extensions by May. No, not hair extensions. Little bits of software that do stuff in the browser that isn’t built in.
Now, Firefox users (the majority of our readership) will know about these, because they’ve been available since launch on that browser, but if you’re on Internet Explorer you may not be aware. These plugins enhance the browser’s functionality, adding weather info, toolbars, or various other features.
Those of you who aren’t using Chrome, would the addition of extensions make you give it another try? Chrome users – is this a good move, or will it slow down the blazing speed of the browser? Let us know in the comments.
Chrome (via Google Operating System)
More on Chrome: HOW-TO: Tweak Chrome to get the newest features early | Still searching for reasons to switch to Google Chrome
Fennec, aka Firefox Mobile, hits phones next week
There’s a lot of people out there, particularly users of Windows Mobile devices, waiting patiently for Firefox Mobile. As Microsoft continues to alienate its users by refusing to allow them to upgrade mobile IE without buying a new phone, a free, open source alternative’s going to look very attractive.
Well, if you’re in that camp, then you don’t have too long to wait. Internal Mozilla documentation suggests that Fennec should see an outing next week, initially on the HTC Touch Pro. There’s touchscreen and non-touchscreen versions, and it’s expected to appear on other Windows Mobile devices over the forthcoming months. I’m looking forward to an S60 version.
Fennec (via ShinyShiny)
Related posts: Mobile Internet Explorer 6 not available as an upgrade | Mozilla releases first alpha of Firefox for mobiles aka Fennec
CES 2009: Sony Cybershot G3 – Wi-Fi camera with built-in browser
Gosh, this is rather nifty. Sony’s new Cybershot G3 camera has an inbuilt web browser! Eat that, Eye-Fi. You can log on to a wireless hotspot, and surf the web to your heart’s content. Disclaimer – depending on the sites your heart wants to render, it may not end up 100% content.
Sony provides a “Easy Upload” homepage, with quick links to Shutterfly, Picasa, Dailymotion, Photobucket and YouTube (no Flickr?). It’ll store your login information, too, so you don’t have to type it in on the 3.5″ touchscreen every time. But what about the camera itself? It’s got a 10 megapixel sensor, 4x optical zoom and Face Detection, along with 4GB of internal storage. Available right now, for $500 (£330).
(via Gizmodo)
For more CES stories, click here.
Internet Explorer browser usage dives below 70%, Firefox hits 20%
It’s no secret that internet browser Firefox has been one of the shining lights of the open source movement, taking market share from Microsoft in a way that Linux hasn’t ever quite been able to. Well, in November last year, usage of Internet Explorer dipped below 70% for the first time in a decade, and Firefox’s market share rose above 20%.
At its peak in 2003, Internet Explorer was running on nearly 94.5% of the world’s internet-using computers. Since then, however, usage has steadily declined, due to endless bugs and security vulnerabilities leading to poor public perception of the software.
The LG Ice Cream Phone 2, or the LG LU1600 to its parents when it's in trouble
We revealed the original LG Ice Cream Phone back in March, and were just as bewildered by a phone inspired by shades of ice cream colours then as we are now. This newest Ice Cream Phone also lights up in fancy pastel LCD colours when someone ring you, plus there’s more in the way of web browser integration and tacky emoticons to keep the kids happy.
But, of course, we’re not particularly interested in the telephone or its features – it’s all about the ladies being forced to eat cold ice cream in the middle of the winter in the name of promotional photography.
The poor things. Hopefully they weren’t forced…
Skyfire is a very capable little mobile internet browser
Those among you who access the web on your mobile device will know the value of a good internet browsing application. Most standard phone browsers (iPhone excepted) are rubbish at rendering the web on a tiny screen. I’m secretly quite a fan of the bog-standard N95 browser, but if I wasn’t, then I’d try Skyfire, which launched today.
It’s simple enough – just an application which you download and install on your S60 phone, but then it offers a very ‘full’ browsing experience, which renders pages like they would on a PC and lets you zoom in and out of them. It’s powerful, though – it’ll happily render Flash, Silverlight, Ajax and Java.
FLASH GAME CHALLENGE – Downhill Bowling
This is brilliant. Why has no-one come up with the concept of downhill bowling before? Fling a bowling ball down a hill and see how many strikes you can get on the pins scattered about the hillside on the way down. Plus there’s bombs!
Install the Unity Web Player (It’s not virus, spyware, etc), and then restart your browser and give it a quick go. I had difficulties running it in Chrome, but after swapping to Firefox, I notched up a whopping score of 7180 on level one. Beat that, and leave your score in the comments for someone else to top.
Downhill Bowling (via RPS)
Related Flash Games: Metro Rules of Conduct | Max out your Flash gaming habit with Flash Game Maximizer
Malicious Firefox add-on steals banking passwords
Yet another reason to be extremely vigilant when accessing financial web sites: researchers have discovered an add-on for Firefox which lies in wait for the user to log in to a banking or online payments site and then sends the username and password to a Russian site.
It’s a bit of a blow for those who have trumpeted how secure Firefox is, but of course we all know that no piece of software is completely secure…
