“Isis Browser is a core application of HP’s webOS platform written using the Enyo framework. As of today, it is a work in progress aiming to incorporate the latest open source technologies, such as QtWebKit and JavaScriptCore, into the webOS platform. The source code of the Isis Browser stack, QtWebKit, and Qt 4.8 is available on GitHub where we will continue our development” Isis Project

Isis is based on the QtWebKit engine, itself released into open-source by Nokia, and the webOS teams have apparently been working some time to bring the platform over to it. The promise is boosted performance and broader compatibility with sites in general; however, there’ll also be “enhanced support” for legacy products, including Flash.

“We’ve benchmarked the new Isis webOS browser and have found it to be extremely responsive compared to other browsers made for general consumption. It has a fast render pipeline and JavaScript execution profile, which is critical to Enyo and other web technologies. It is extensively supportive of HTML5 and CSS3. Standards-compliance is important to developers because they can use technologies like Enyo to develop cross-platform web applications that already work well on webOS” Fred Patton, webOS team

As for the Open webOS Governance Model, that’s been based on the Apache way and laid out as follows:

• Open webOS will made available under the Apache license, Version 2.0.
• Open webOS will use the contributor committal model in use on most open source projects.
• Open webOS will be segmented into multiple projects to give developers ample opportunity to join and remain active in the development effort.
• The Open webOS project website will host a wiki, a source code repository, a mailing list, and a bug tracking system.
• We will use Github or an equivalent tool to as the code repository.
• We will use JIRA or an equivalent tool to track issues.
• Our plan is to allow multiple committers to branch and merge code in the open to allow multiple development branches to occur at once.

These latest releases keep pace with HP’s schedule of open-sourcing webOS, which has been broken down into a series of monthly milestones. Together with Enyo, released last month, today’s tools supposedly allow for ”an immersive user environment that can be built on any web platform”, something we think Mozilla might be pleased about. Iris is compatible with HP TouchPad devices running webOS 3.0.5, meanwhile.

"HTML5 is a compelling technology for developing apps, and is quickly improving. Combined with the freedom to build what you want and distribute it directly to users on your own terms, it has great potential. But just as there are gaps to be filled from a technology point of view, there are gaps to be filled from an ecosystem point of view. The Web lacks standard, consistent ways to find, rate, review, purchase and prove ownership of apps. Mozilla’s goal is to foster an ecosystem that combines the best elements of the Web with the best elements of the app model" Mozilla Foundation

Although it might be the easy - and, given the challenges faced from Google's Chrome, Apple's Safari and Microsoft's Internet Explorer, some might argue sensible - route to make the apps Firefox-only, Mozilla is targeting cross-browser compatibility. The common standards the group intends would "support multiple app stores, direct distribution of apps by app developers, app portability and true end-user ownership of their apps."

As for distributing that software, Mozilla plans to extend its existing web-app Marketplace to cover phones and tablets in addition to desktop users. Apps will be supported in any browser, no matter the device or OS, and developers will be able to release paid as well as free titles.

Part of Mozilla's challenge is opening up broad hardware access to apps created in HTML5, CSS and JavaScript, which currently lack the flexibility of native code. To do that, it's pushing ahead with "Boot to Gecko" (B2G), the web-powered mobile platform for phones and tablets that, while using a trimmed-down Android base layer, will boot straight into a browser-style interface for native support of HTML5 and other web-app coding. Mozilla is aiming for a public product demo of B2G sometime this quarter.

[via CNET]

Flash Player for ICS was released near the end of 2011, Adobe’s final mobile flourish before it turned its attentions to HTML5. The decision to end Flash Player development for mobile devices followed long-standing criticism of the technology, most notably from Apple founder Steve Jobs, though the proliferation of Flash content online meant that for many users it was a necessary evil.

For now, Chrome for Android is only available if you’re on 4.0, meaning it’s a small percentage – around 1-percent, in fact – who get to play with the new app. If you’re interested in porting the browser to earlier versions of Android, meanwhile, developer Al Sutton points to the direct tarball download for your tinkering delectation.

For everything Chrome for Android can do, check out the full SlashGear review.

The BSI has announced that it recommends Google’s Chrome browser for German citizens as the most secure for surfing the web. The reason Chrome is recommended over other available browsers by BSI is that the browser isolates itself from the operating system of the computer, and because it has a silent update mechanism. BSI also cites the bundling of Adobe Flash as another reason for its recommendation.

BSI said, “This [sandbox] protection is implemented most consistently in Chrome…[and] similar mechanisms in other browsers are currently either weaker or non-existent.”

Right now, only 14.3% of web surfers in Germany use Google Chrome. The most common browser is Firefox with 51% of the German market, and Microsoft Internet Explorer has 24.8% of the market. Globally, Google Chrome is the second most common browser in market share worldwide. The most popular browser globally is Internet Explorer.

[via ComputerWorld]

The current version of Firefox that Mozilla workers are crafting is Firefox 12. Recently, the daily builds showed up with a couple new features that are very reminiscent of Chrome features. Some fans of Firefox will be upset to hear that the features that were added and removed included one that many been waiting for, the new tab page. The other feature was the home tab. While the new tab page wasn’t part of Firefox test build for long, it was up long enough for people to see what it was about.

The page was a three by three grid that showed you little pictures of the most visited websites that you had been to, intended let you just click on the pictures and go to the site. Chrome has had this for a while, but it’s not a feature that many use. The Firefox home tab is a little strip the bottom of the browser that has launchers, in those launchers let you go directly to certain things in the browser such as downloads, settings, apps, and more. Now for the bad news, over the weekend Mozilla pulled the new tab page from Firefox 12 along with the home tab. Honestly, I don’t see either of those two features being anything particularly exciting. Do you think those are important features? If you use Firefox are those two features something you will miss?

[via Extremetech]

Plans to integrate WebRTC into Chrome were revealed last summer, with the tech being an open-source way to call upon standardized voice/video communication without stepping outside of the browser. Eventually, it could mean apps like Google Talk – which is being migrated over to use WebRTC – could challenge rivals like Skype from any standards-compliant browser, rather than demanding a separate app be installed.

That would have a significant impact on mobile devices and web-appliances like Chromebooks, which could get onboard with audio and video communication without waiting on developers releasing native apps. As we suggested last year, a Google-led iMessage rival could end up blowing Apple out of the water in IM and comms.

Meanwhile, WebRTC also has potential for cloud-based streaming services such as OnLive gaming, another element tipped for inclusion in a future Chrome build. What remains to be seen is when WebRTC support gets baked into Gmail and Google+, which each have A/V services that could make significant use of it.

Those figures, Microsoft’s IE team claims, suggest that “as of November, IE9 usage share on Windows 7 worldwide was higher than all versions of Chrome and all versions of Firefox – second only to IE8″ and that December numbers look set to follow that trajectory. In fact, Microsoft says it expects that 25.6-percent of Windows 7 PCs will have been using IE9 by the end of 2011, in the US at least.

IE8 remains the top individual browser version in play according to Net Applications, at 28-percent alone, though those figures differ from those released in December by StatCounter which indicated Chrome v.15 had overtaken it. Google has begun an aggressive update push to get users onto Chrome v.16, and Microsoft recently revealed plans to automatically update its own legacy users unless they had previously opted-out.

Nonetheless, Microsoft could find itself dipping beneath the 50-percent market share point come March, Net Applications predicts, if its overall share continues to dwindle at the same pace. Firefox, too, ended 2011 on a sour note, with its 21.8-percent share only slightly higher than that of Chrome.

The folks at StatCounter are making the claim here that at the end of November of 2011, Chrome 15 made the monumental task a reality: beating out the newest version of Internet Explorer. This is the first time this has happened in quite a long time, and certainly will have the Internet Explorer team re-thinking their current method of updating their customers to the newest version of their software. What Google is doing right here, it seems, is making sure people have the automatic update feature of Chrome activated without a reason to turn it off. What you WONT notice anywhere else on the chart is a different version of Chrome – fun, huh?

Of course the rest of the chart is littered with three other titans: Firefox, Safari, and… oh yes there’s Opera too. Oh and Safari’s iPad iteration is in there too, that’s interesting that one single device’s browser shows up, no small feat in itself. Each of these contestants (with the exception of the last two) have their browser broken up into pieces across the chart. Internet Explorer wins the entire battle when you combine its many multiples together, but there’s still no doubt that Chrome has certainly come into its own in the end.

[via StatCounter]

Previous arguments for keeping IE6 and other earlier releases of the browser have been generally related to enterprise browser-based tools not updated for newer iterations. Microsoft is respecting that, and says that not only will its existing IE8 and IE9 Automatic Update Blocker toolkits stop new versions from being installed, but anybody who has declined an update through Windows Update will also be left alone.

If you’re desperately wedded to IE6 and are caught by surprise with an automatically-pushed new version, you’ll also be able to roll back and get your precious old software. Dragging people into the future (or, at least, the present) will begin in January with users in Australia and Brazil, with Microsoft broadening the scheme to other countries through the year.

New user accounts can be easily created under the Options and Preferences section by clicking “Add new user.” A new instance of Chrome then appears with a badge at the top left indicating which user the instance belongs to. Clicking on the badge shows a drop down list of other signed-in accounts that you can switch to.

This makes it more convenient and less of a mess to sync bookmarks, apps, and extensions, especially when multiple people in a family are using the same browser. However, it is not intended to secure your data and you can easily switch between any accounts that are signed in.

[via Chrome Blog]

What Google is doing this week with a group of game developers such as Square Enix, Unity Technologies, and Bungie, is host an appearance on campus showing off how the open source project Native Source runs inside their proprietary browser Chrome. Such fabulous features as mouse lock, full-screen API, and OpenGL ES 2.0 3D graphics have been introduced to the platform since its launch in Chrome 14 Beta, and both 2D and 3D graphics either work right this moment or are well on their way to becoming a reality soon. One of the other features the group emphasized is Google Chrome’s ability to store code for games inside itself.

Have a peek at this explanation and demonstration of Native Client courtesy of Google Developers and the product manager for Native Client, Christian Stefansen:

Again in a nutshell, what this Native Client platform provides is a simple way for developers to port over (or create) their work while maintaining one code base in Chrome. One example of this, says Google, is Star Legends [Chrome store link], a game whose developers ported the entire multiplayer online game over to the web in just two weeks. More than a half million lines of code in less than a month, is what that is.

Product Manager for Chrome Christian Stefansen (from the video above) provided the following links for directions on where to go from here for all of you would-be web-based game developers hoping to get in on the Chrome web store:

“The community is actively involved in Native Client, porting some of the most popular application middleware. Ports include Unity and Moai game engines, programming language environments Mono and Lua, audio middleware such as fmod and Wwise, as well as the Bullet physics engine. These Native Client ports make the web more accessible to hundreds of thousands of application developers.” – Stefansen

After all that good stuff, you can head out to Google Chrome’s brand new Native Client help and development site and get your show on the road today!

[via Chromium Blog]

The major new feature of the latest version of the browser is a revamped address field. It now has search suggestions to access sites faster and it has a star in the address field for bookmarking pages easily. The browser also has a new engine that offers significant improvements and makes the browser faster and more stable.

Along with the new browser also comes a new mail design with the built-in mail client. The mail client will allow you to manage your mail automatically. It also has a cleaner layout, message grouping, and a more intuitive inbox view and navigation. You can download the new browser version right now.

Two of the biggest blows to Mozilla were the loss of a key manager Mike Shaver that left for greener pastures and the loss of a key revenue stream. Mozilla has had a contract in place with Google making the search giant its largest financial backer. A search partnership with Google was the largest source of income for Mozilla. That partnership was set to end in November.

That one partnership with Google was generating 84% to 86% of all the revenue that Mozilla earned. At this point, there is still apparently a chance that the Google search deal will be renewed. Mozilla is paying the situation close to the vest and will only offer vague responses like “We believe that search providers will remain a solid generator of revenue for Mozilla for the foreseeable future.” What do you think, is Firefox done? Does Google even need the Firefox partnership since Chrome is gaining many of the Firefox defectors? Will Google renew the deal to keep Bing or Yahoo from signing up?

[via ZDNet]

The update is set to land in Q1 2012 and will bring with it not only support for gamepads, but a couple other tricks as well. The update will allow Chrome to support cameras and microphones without needing plug-ins for them to operate. Kinlan apparently hinted that the games for Chrome might also get augmented reality and player tracking.

Other plans for the update include support for webRTC, which is an open source application that supprots video chart. That would allow the browser to support video chat with no plug in needed. The tech might also allow Google to add a browser gaming service along the lines of On-Live. That would be interesting for many fans.

[via Next-gen]

The new beta version also adds CSS3 radial gradients to the mix allowing the web page designer to design ellipses and even double rainbows that the 11.60 version can render. The browser is also supporting ECMAScript 5.1, which is the latest version of JavaScript standards. The browser also has some other interesting HTML5 support.

11.60 is the first browser to support HTML5 microdata. That microdata is used by search engines to help enhance the search results returned for phrases. You can grab the beta 11.60 browser right now at Opera.com.

Java ME takes third place, with 12.84-percent – a slump from over a quarter of browser hits less than a year ago – while Symbian’s performance is even more dreary. Browser use has apparently more than halved since December 2010, down from 8-percent to 3.48-percent. BlackBerry dipped to 2.48-percent and fifth place.

The stats are gathered from approximately 160m monthly hits across its partner network, Net Applications claims, along with search engine referrals. Android and iOS are constant rivals in terms of “biggest, brightest, best” metrics like browser share, app availability and downloads; last month, it was announced that iOS led the field in mobile ad impressions, but that Android devices saw more apps downloaded.

This new social twist will be in the form of giving the user the ability to share media and documents. One of the most noticeable changes to the browser in Chrome 15 is the Chrome Tab panel is redesigned completely. The redesign was done to make it easier for the user to access and organize pages and apps. Google also notes that you can get information about an app or extension in a click by opening a panel that has screenshots, videos, and other details offered in different tabs.

It’s worth noting that some users are saying that the new version of the browser is more unstable than the old one. One also pointed out that the new Tab page can’t be edited. I hope the new version doesn’t have serious stability issues. I left Firefox for Chrome recently after increasing instability issues with Firefox. Check out the video to see some of the Tab page changes in action.

[via The Inquirer]

The cloud servers and SPDY will be used to route most webpage elements through the cloud servers to speed page downloading. The privacy fears came in that when in cloud mode the user would be trusting Amazon with a lot of information that could be used to track the browsers habits online. Amazon tells the EFF that cloud mode will be the default setting, but it can be easily turned off. Amazon also notes that it will not intercept SSL traffic.

Requests from the browser for SSL traffic will be routed directly to the tablet browser. Amazon also says that even though the SPDY connection is persistent between the device and Amazon servers the only info that is regularly logged is the URL of the resource requested, timestamp, and a token identifying a session. SPDY also means that a user on an open network will not be able to spy on the browsing session of the Silk user. The EFF is still concerned about the storing of URLs that you visit, which could allow for the identification of users through search history with some degree of accuracy. The EFF says that it is generally satisfied with the privacy design of Silk.

Although the so-called “split browser” architecture of Silk is initially an exclusive feature of Kindle Fire, it’s entirely possible that Amazon has broader ambitions for the software. As the company explains it, Silk uses Amazon’s EC2 servers to cache websites at high speed, maintaining a persistent connection open to the backend server on the AWS cloud, and using compressed pages to minimize loading times.

It’s Amazon’s page suggestions that are the biggest indicator of Silk’s potential future, however. The browser learns likely page interest based on an aggregate of all users, and can preload the website it believes you’re probably going to want to visit next. They’re the same skills as used in Amazon’s collaborative filtering techniques and machine learning algorithms for the “customers who bought this also bought” feature, and represent not only a time saving shortcut for Kindle Fire users but a potentially huge source of personal data for Amazon itself.

That has raised the hackles of privacy advocates already, though Amazon says Kindle Fire owners will be able to turn off the heuristics and use Silk as a regular browser if they prefer. Extending the app to the desktop and other mobile platforms, however, as these URLs might imply is the intention, would significantly extend Amazon’s data collection abilities.

[via Fusible]

The system also supports optimization of multimedia, so a photo that’s 3MB online may be compressed down to 50KB before it’s sent to your Kindle Fire. That means less bandwidth and faster load times. Amazon has also factored in some user-behavior predictive tech, that can track aggregate browsing behavior and preload the next page it thinks you’ll want to see.

Meanwhile, even if Amazon’s EC2 servers were to crash, the retailer says that Kindle Fire owners won’t be left without internet access. Described as a “decentralized view” of the sub-systems involved, the browser on the Kindle Fire itself is capable of acting in a standalone fashion, meaning users will still be able to get their online fix (albeit at a potentially slower pace than they’re used to).

One of those “legacy” technologies is Flash, which Microsoft’s engineers reckon is the most common plugin encountered in the most popular sites. “Many of the 62% of these sites that currently use Adobe Flash already fall back to HTML5 video in the absence of plug-in support” they suggest.

Those still wanting access to Flash and other plugins will be able to switch to the regular, desktop version of IE10, however. That – which will also support pen and touch input – will play nicely with ActiveX controls and the like. If you’d prefer to stick within Metro but still get the full IE10 experience, a “Use Desktop View” option will be available on a site-by-site basis.

It seems even Adobe are trying to look beyond Flash these days, with the company demonstrating its Edge HTML5 app earlier this year as a potential alternative to the existing technology. You can see the Metro IE10 browser demonstrated in our hands-on with Windows 8 on tablets below.

Windows 8 Tablet hands-on:

Although it offer both interfaces, it’s clear that Microsoft finds the new Metro UI to offer a superior experience. In a blog post, Microsoft Internet Explorer chief Dean Hachamovitch wrote: “While building the entirely new Metro style experience, a funny thing happened: we realized it might just be a better way to browse even if you have a big screen, a desktop computer, and a mouse and keyboard.”

Thus, IE10 will run two separate experiences on the same engine, which Microsoft believes is the best route so that no compromises are made. There are also several improvements to performance, safety, and support for HTML 5.

The platform preview 3 for IE10 is only available through the Windows 8 preview for now with future platform previews of IE10 to be made available every 8 to 12 weeks. The final version will only be supported by Windows 7 and Windows 8.

[via WinRumors]

The official launch date is listed as August 16 for Firefox 6.0. Firefox 7.0 will go into the beta channel tomorrow as well signaling a stable build. At the same time, Firefox 8 will move to the aurora channel. Only the beta channel builds are considered stable, the other two channels have no QC that is found on the other channels.

The new Firefox 6.0 browser will bring some changes to the mix including an address bar that highlights the domain you are visiting. It has a site identity block with a new look, and has support for the latest version of Websockets. It also has a bunch of other updated features including Scratchpad support for JavaScript prototyping. There are a number of other changes as well.

[via Neowin]

“Consider an online photo storage site run by a cash-strapped startup: the developers don’t have the resources to add image editing abilities to their app, but they feel the site won’t be a hit without it. The Web Intent system will make it easy for them to offer this with little effort” Google

Intents are used in Android, described as a “late run-time binding between components in the same or different applications.” Basically, it uses generic actions – like sharing – which are recognized by apps, and allows the browser to pass on data without necessarily knowing anything about the app it’s working with.

It’s that level of intercommunication which Google (and Mozilla) wants to bring over to the desktop, with a set of generic “edit, view, share” commands that Chrome can call upon to integrate with any compatible web app. Best of all for developers, only a couple of lines of code would be required to enable the functionality, and Google is promising a Web Intent portfolio site so as to showcase exactly what can be achieved and prompt new developments.

Examples of the system can be explored here, including simple URL sharing and shortening, opening files and starting an action in a web-app, and picking images from a cloud-based service. Google’s team says it’s expecting to roll out a public test soon. When stable, it’s likely we’ll see Web Intents make a strong showing in the Chromebook project, which relies solely on web-apps rather than local software.

Suspicions were raised after it was noted that the ApTiquant site had only been up and running for a month, though the company claimed to have been established in 2006. Further investigation showed that the site had copied all of its staff profile photos from a French business, research firm Central Test, which has denied any knowledge of the hoax.

“With just a look at the graphs in the report, it comes out pretty clear that Internet Explorer users scored lower than average on the IQ tests. Chrome, Firefox and Safari users had just a teeny bit higher than average IQ scores. And users of Camino, Opera and IE with Chrome Frame had exceptionally higher IQ levels” ApTiquant

“I believe these figures are implausibly low – and an insult to IE users” Cambridge University stats professor David Spiegelhalter told the BBC, though security researchers failed to find any phishing or malware payload in any of ApTiquant’s content. No record of the “psychometric consulting company” exists at the address the URL is registered to.

The fourth most popular browser in Britain is Safari with about 9% of the web users in the country. Part of the reason for the uptick in use for Chrome is the commercials that Google runs on the TV in Britain. Apparently, Chrome is the first Google product to be advertised in Britain on TV. However, The Guardian attributes much of the success of the browser to the speed it offers.

Lars Bak is the engineer that is responsible for the speed of Chrome and he thinks the browser could be faster still. It’s good to see Google is working still to improve Chrome. Right now Chrome is the third most popular browser in the world with a market share of 20.65%. I’ve never tried Chrome; I have used Firefox for years. Should I give Chrome a try? I would love to have a browser that loads pages faster and uses less resources than Firefox does when you have hoards of tabs open.

[via The Guardian]

According to Google, in its own testing some sites have more than doubled the speed at which they load, without users needing to bother with the traditional fixes to address sluggish page speeds. If you’re skeptical, there’s a “try before you buy” option which gives some estimates based on average browsers and connections.

“To use the service, you need to sign up and point your site’s DNS entry to Google. Page Speed Service fetches content from your servers, rewrites your pages by applying web performance best practices, and serves them to end users via Google’s servers across the globe. Your users will continue to access your site just as they did before, only with faster load times” Ram Ramani, engineering manager, Google

Initially Google will offer the Page Speed Service free of charge, though that will change as the system exits this testing phase. The benefit for the company itself is – beyond charges – presumably greater control and access to sites along with increasing its own footprint. Whether web admins will trust Google to deliver their prized online presence, however, remains to be seen.

It’s the first doodle to be constructed entirely with HTML5 Canvas, Google software engineer Jered Wierzbicki explains, and so needs a “modern” browser in order to appreciate it. The physics simulation works out the precise motions of each balanced component – made from sheet metal in Calder’s mobiles, but slices of the Google logo colors in this doodle – and then uses realtime 3D rendering to create them in vector graphics.

Although it’s less frenetic than some of Google’s previous designs – such as the much-loved Pac-Man doodle or the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea doodle to celebrate author Jules Verne’s birthday – it’s an interesting example of what browsers are capable of today. Considering Google is pushing for Chrome OS on its Chromebooks as the next generation of consumer computers, we’re curious to see what slightly more functional uses of HTML5 Canvas might be in the search giant’s labs.

There’s also an improved privacy control panel, for more granular control over what sites have left behind on your system, along with boosted stability and responsiveness. More minor tweaks include an update to AutoFill which keeps your details private, filtering for Find commands that can limit results to those only at the start of sentences, and drag-and-drop downloads to pull items out of the Downloads window onto the desktop or elsewhere.

Finally there’s full-screen webpage support, along with support for HTML5 media caching, MathML, Web Open Font Format, CSS3 Auto-hyphenation, CSS3 Vertical Text, CSS3 Text Emphasis, Window.onError and Formatted XML files. Apple has even thrown in a few security updates.

Safari 5.1 is a 47.47MB download for Snow Leopard users and 36.06MB for Windows users, and can be grabbed here. If you’re running OS X Lion, which was released yesterday, you’ll already have it.

The trick is to go to the Help page from the eBookstore on the Story HD, then use the default links running across the top of the screen. Selecting “Books” takes you to books.google.com, at which point you can then choose “Web” and get to Google.com. As you’d expect, from that page you can search and go pretty much anywhere you like.

Unfortunately, unlike the WebKit-based browser on the third-gen Kindle, the iriver app isn’t particularly internet-friendly. There’s no address bar, obviously, and if you want to move forward and back through your history, refresh the page or stop it from loading, you have to go to the options menu. Also, if the Story HD goes into sleep mode, it will boot you back out of the browser.

Still, it’s usable in a pinch, and sometimes it’s not so much the aesthetics of the webpage that matters as it is getting online and checking something in the first place. Obviously text-based content is most suited; for more on how well the Story HD handles ebooks, check out the review.

Gmail has two themes to choose from, called Preview and Preview Dense, though eventually they’ll be selected automatically depending on the size of the screen you’re viewing your inbox on. Just as most people have already spotted, the modifications echo the new black bar running across the top of the Google search page; there’s also more use of shading and highlight to differentiate sections, and the whole thing looks cleaner.

As for Google Calendar, those changes include auto-hiding of the calendar lists, the ability to collapse the mini month-view, and various buttons that were previously text being replaced with icons. Google reckons this will provide a more seamless transition between desktop and mobile use, and says there are more changes in the works.

However, it may not be entirely smooth sailing to begin with. The company warns that some of the experimental “Labs” features may not work properly with the new themes yet, and to let it know if you spot anything broken. You can prematurely enable the new Calendar view from the settings cog in the top right corner, and the new Gmail themes from the settings page.

News that Chrome was also in line was confirmed late last week, with Google software engineer Henrik Andreasson announcing its inclusion to browser developers:

“Our goal is to enable Chrome with Real-Time Communications (RTC) capabilities via simple Javascript APIs. We are working hard to provide full RTC support in Chrome all the way from WebKit down to the native audio and video parts. When we are done, any web developer shall be able to create RTC applications, like the Google Talk client in Gmail, without using any plugins but only WebRTC components that runs in the sandbox.” Henrik Andreasson, Google

Google used technologies acquired from GIPS in 2010 to build WebRTC, and is looking to build the system into a set of open standards for other browser producers to adopt. For users, there’d be no plugins or apps to install, only real-time voice and video communications supported from within webpages and web-aware apps.

As we suggested recently, with a little work Google could implement WebRTC – along with other systems – in its Google Talk platform, and blow Apple’s iMessage and FaceTime out of the water.

[via CNET]

This latest update brings over 1000 new features for both desktop and Android versions of the browser. Firefox 5 isn’t a major overhaul outwardly, but does bring a lot of change under the hood that includes performance and stability enhancements as well as privacy improvements and new CSS animations and improved JavaScript support.

Performance wise, Firefox 5 uses new HTTP optimizations that accelerates content and makes it much faster than before. The “Do not track” option that was introduced in Firefox 4 is now more visible to users and appears as an interface item for users to select whether or not they want websites to track them. New CSS animations support will allow for “Flash-like” dynamic content.

[via Datamation]

Although Apple’s primary intention appears to be encouraging those taking a MacBook to get online and thus give the Find My Mac feature an opportunity to “phone home,” it should also find favor among users who want to give temporary internet access to others while not necessarily opening up all of their files to access. Since OS X Lion has Auto Save and Resume functionality, even after a restart all of the user’s files and apps would be reopened just as they’d left them.

With the growing number of web-based apps in common use, the browser-only feature could also replace the use of local accounts for families: rather than giving every Mac user their own account, each person would simply log in this new way, use Gmail and other web apps, and then sign out without leaving any trace on the computer itself. That should minimize maintenance tasks as well as prevent “where did I save that file?” confusion.

OS X Lion is expected to hit the Mac App Store for download in July, priced at $30. For more information, check out our keynote summary from last week.

Older browsers to have their support phased out starting this fall, include Firefox 3.5, Internet Explorer 7, Safari 3, and all of their predecessors. Google says that these browsers simply cannot support the HTML 5 needed for new Google Apps to work. For instance, the desktop notifications in Gmail and the drag-and-drop file uploading in Google Docs.

Google will continue to support up to three of the most recent browser versions on a rolling basis for Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari. Whenever a new version is released, support for the third-oldest version will be dropped.

[via Google Enterprise Blog]

Opera has also added in new direct share functionality, making it easier to share webpages with Facebook, Twitter and its own My Opera service. The browser was first released back in March with a tablet version for Android-based slates; if you’ve always been confused between Mini and the Opera Mobile browser, this one uses the company’s compression servers to slim down data usage.

Safari on the iPhone and iPad has always been a patchy user experience, rendering well but with a stripped down UI that could make for sluggish operation, so we’re always glad to see alternatives. Opera Mini 6 for iOS is a free download [iTunes link] from the App Store.

Press Release:

Oslo, Norway – May 24, 2011 – Today, the Opera Mini 6 browser for iOS joined the Opera band and is available to download for free from the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad.

The Opera Mini mobile browser provides a different kind of browsing experience to complement the default iPad and iPhone browser. It features up to 90% compression of data traffic for speed and cost savings, making both your patience and wallet happy on slower connections or when roaming.

So Opera Mini is ready to chime in and sing harmony when you are on a slow connection, crowded network, paying per megabyte for browsing, or simply want to save time and money.

Have an iPhone 4? Our browser adapts to the high resolution and changes the user interface to accommodate the screen size. How about iPad? Yep, the Opera Mini 6 browser will switch to a more convenient view for tablet handling.

The chorus of Opera Mini users gave feedback and we listened. Like the rest of the Opera Mini 6 lineup, the iOS version features:

- Much faster and smoother panning and zooming that lets the user get all the way into the details of every page, in one smooth motion
- Share buttons to share the love for a site to your friends on My Opera, Facebook, Twitter or vKontakte right from the Opera Mini 6 browser
- New jazzed-up skin and redesigned Opera menus

Backstage, Opera’s engineers have tuned the browser and created a faster and more fluid user experience. Scrolling and panning are ultra fast, even on the largest webpages, for instant access. On iOS, the Opera Mini 6 browser is submitted as a single download for all iOS devices.

What we are saying:
“I would compare it to walking onto the stage and hearing the roar of the crowd,” said Opera’s, CEO Lars Boilesen, when describing the feeling of letting the Opera Mini 6 browser out on stage in the App Store. “We have put in a lot of rehearsal and clever thought behind the new experience. The Opera Mini browser has always kicked up the tempo when downloading pages; now the browsing flows along to a smooth, easy beat.”

Rockin’ the app store

The Opera Mini 5 browser for iOS launched in April 2010, to the delight of screaming fans who threw their underwear at the stage, racking up more than a million downloads at the Apple app store in the first 24 hours. Super fast browsing, cost savings on data traffic and unmatched user experience leads to a Woodstock-like download rush.

During that time, the Opera Mini browser topped the charts in every Apple App Store globally.

Now, it is Opera Mini 6′s turn to get its name up in lights.

There’s also better spell-checking performance and Linux users should find Firefox 5 integrates better than previous versions. Meanwhile, the much-vaunted Do-Not-Track header system has been moved to a more prominent position, in the hope that more users will take advantage of it.

Interestingly, there’s also now easy switching between Mozilla’s three channels – Firefox Aurora, Beta and Release – so that users can test out the early versions while not giving up on the most stable release. There’s a full list of the changes in Firefox 5 here, and you can download it here.

Some of the Chrome 11 changes include bug fixes in cloud printing, new hardware accelerated 3D CSS, updated security of its built-in version of Adobe Flash, and user agent string changes that bring it in line with the changes made in Firefox 4. The browser update also addressed 25 security vulnerabilities, 15 of which were ranked as high.

However, the feature that Google highlighted was a new speech input function implemented with HTML 5. The new feature works seamlessly with Google Translate to provide speech-to-text capabilities. Newly embedded on the translate page is a microphone icon, which you can click to speak your input that converts into text. It appears to only work with English at this time. Chrome 11 is ready for download now for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

[via CNET]

Video demo after the cut

Thanks to Firefox Sync, all your desktop bookmarks, browsing history, open tabs, form data and passwords are pulled across into the mobile app, and vice-versa. There’s also the Awesome Bar, Mozilla’s combination search and address bar.

HTML5 support is baked in, but no Flash support at present. Mozilla is also offering Firefox 4 for Maemo. More information at the Mozilla blog.

What’s New in Firefox for Android and Maemo:

• Streamlined Interface
• Focus on Web content: Features like tabs, one-touch bookmarking and browser controls that stow away when not in use help users focus on the websites they visit
• Browse More, Type Less
• Awesome Screen: Type less with easy access to history, bookmarks and open tabs
• Save to PDF: Capture important websites, like directions or a boarding pass, to view offline
• Share Page: Share websites via apps like email, Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader and more
• Add Search Engine: Customize your search engine list
• Private and Secure Synchronization
• Firefox Sync: Access Awesome Bar history, bookmarks, open tabs, passwords and form data across multiple computers and mobile devices with secure end-to-end encryption
• Most Customizable:
• Firefox offers thousands of ways for users to customize the features, functionality and look of their mobile Web browser with Firefox Add-ons
• Cutting Edge Tools for Web Developers:
• Firefox improves existing tools like CSS, Canvas and SVG to enable developers to make exciting Web pages
• HTML5 support in Firefox for Android and Maemo includes Location-Aware Browsing, device orientation, accelerometer, desktop notifications and more
• The JavaScript engine incorporates the new JägerMonkey JIT compiler, along with enhancements to the existing TraceMonkey JIT and SpiderMonkey’s interpreter for faster page-load speed and better performance of Web apps and games

There’s also a new sharing button, with options for Twitter, Facebook, vKontakte or My Opera. If you’ve always been confused about the difference between the two, Opera Mini uses the company’s compression servers to slim down data usage, while Opera Mobile gets the full-fat web with HTML5 support and the Opera Presto engine carried over from the desktop version.

Opera Mini 6 is available on J2ME, Android, BlackBerry and Symbian/S60 phones, while Opera Mobile 11 will run on Android, Symbian, Windows 7 desktop (labs release), MeeGo (labs release) and Maemo (labs release). Interestingly, there’s no Windows Mobile version, so it looks like Microsoft’s old smartphone platform has sung its last, at least according to Opera. You can download at m.opera.com.

Press Release:

Whole lotta love for the mobile Web

Debuting all new Opera Mini 6 and Opera Mobile 11
Oslo, Norway — March 22, 2011

Can’t get no satisfaction from the mobile Web? Then you will fall head over heels for the new Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers launched today, now also available to cherish on tablets. Opera’s mobile browsers are the world’s most popular, the weapon of choice for 100 million people worldwide, used on more than 3000 devices. If you still haven’t found what you are looking for, there is an Opera out there available for you. Download to your phone from: m.opera.com and don’t stop til you get enough.

What’s new, pussycat?

Smooth operator
Improved scrolling, panning and zooming make the Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers the sweetest thing to hit mobile devices since the Opera Mini 5 browser.

Pinch-to-zoom
Feel free to twist and shout now that Opera’s features include true pinch-to-zoom on devices that support pinch.

Sharing
When you find something, let it be … shared. The new versions feature a share button, so you can easily post, Tweet (twiddly-diddly-deet), or just shout it out loud on Facebook, vKontakte or My Opera.

Now also optimized for tablets
Is it any wonder? Opera for tablets brings smooth browsing to your tablet PC with a brand new interface that is sure to rock you like a hurricane.

What we say

“If you’ve lost that loving feeling for the Web on your phone or tablet, don’t let it bring you down. Just try one of our browsers,” said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software. “The sun always shines on TV, but the Opera browser shines on more than 3000 devices.”

Who are you? The difference between the Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers

The Opera Mini browser uses Opera’s servers to shake, rattle and roll webpages down to a tenth of their original size before sending them to your phone. Because the data transferred is smaller, pages arrive faster than the speed of sound. On a pay-as-you-go plan, the Opera Mini browser dramatically cuts the price you pay, because the data you use is greatly reduced. The Opera Mini browser makes any device Internet savvy.
The Opera Mobile browser gives you the whole of the moon on smartphones and tablets. The strange magic of HTML5? Check. Full, high fidelity web browsing? Check. Sharing the same Opera Presto browser engine found in Opera’s desktop browser, the Opera Mobile browser is the premier option for fast, powerful browsing when on unlimited Internet data plans or Wi-Fi.
Availability

The Opera Mini 6 browser brings the fireworks to J2ME, Android, BlackBerry and Symbian/S60 phones.
The Opera Mobile 11 browser sings hallelujah on the Android, Symbian, Windows 7 desktop (labs release), MeeGo (labs release) and Maemo (labs release) platforms.
What you waiting for? Walk this way with your mobile device: m.opera.com.