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New Media News Every Morning

Can Bing! Save Firefox?

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Unless you live outside of the geek-o-sphere, you probably did not realize that Mozilla recently added Bing! as a search option to Firefox.

Today Bing and Firefox announced that Bing will be included as one of the search engine choices within Firefox on both the Mac and PC.

We’re very excited to be included in the search engine choices in the upcoming version of Firefox.  Having Bing in the “out of the box” list makes it easier than ever for the Firefox community to experience the benefits of Bing.

We expect the Bing option to show up in an upcoming build of Firefox 4. (Bing! Community Blog) [Read more…]

Originally posted on October 7, 2010 @ 1:44 pm

Google Chrome Gains Market Share While Others Lose

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Although it’s only for February, still we could not discount the fact that Google is slowly gaining grounds in the web browser market with the continously improving Chrome browser. Want proof? The latest data collected by Net Applications, a web metrics company is showing that for Google Chrome is the only browser that made some gains in February.

Google Chrome registered an increase of 5.61% in market share from January’s 5.22%, up by 0.39%. Although it’s market share is still not big enough at 0.96% share, still this quite an achievement for Google Chrome, considering that it came late into the web browser party.

Even more interesting is the fact that all of its rival showed a slight decrease in market share during February. Internet Explorer, the top no. 1 browser to date got a decrease in market share of 0.54% from January with 61.58% share in February. Firefox, Safari and Opera also have their market share falling down to 0.20%, 0.08% and 0.03% respectively. Firefox market share is now at 24.23%, Safari at 4.45% and Opera at 2.35%.

Again, it’s a minimal increase and Google has a long way to go to make Chrome browser overtakes or even be at par with both IE and Firefox, but given Google’s marketing strategy plus its continuing effort to enhance Chrome browser, it will just be a matter of time before it becomes a powerful contender in the web browser wars.

Originally posted on March 1, 2010 @ 5:45 pm

Microsoft Unveils Windows Phone 7 Series, No Phone Yet

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There you go, Microsoft joins the MWC 2010 party by announcing its completely rebranded Windows mobile OS, now called Windows Phone 7 series.  But aside from the rebranding, Microsoft has also mentioned several new and exciting features of its latest mobile OS.

Although there is no definite handset yet that will carry Windows Phone 7 Series,  Microsoft is banking on the mobile platform’s brand new appeal. In fact, 7 series was built completely from the ground up.  And among its nice features include – a new home screen, integration with XBOX Live and Microsoft Zune, as well as enhanced social networking features.

In addition, the new OS makes a Windows Phone 7 Series phone look a lot like Microsoft Zune. But it heavily focuses on social networking features. And integrating the OS with Xbox, the OS will have Live games, game avatars as well as profiles.

What’s pretty interesting about his development is that Microsoft also announced that their new OS will require mobile phone manufacturers to adhere to a one identity policy. This means that  new phones will be sporting  high res touchscreen, and  three front-facing buttons.

Windows Phone 7 Series will be supported by various telecoms company including AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, Telefonica, and more.

Via Engadget

 

Originally posted on February 15, 2010 @ 11:59 am

Chrome for Mac Beta with Extensions, Bookmark Sync Available Now

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Just in time for the upcoming MacWorld Expo, Google has released the latest version of its Chrome browser for Mac platforms. Chrome for Mac, which was released only last December as a public beta is now in version 5.0.307.

This Chrome version for Mac takes the same features as its Windows version. These features include extensions, bookmark sync across computers plus of course the same snappy, safe and simple browsing experience as the Chrome for Windows was.

I would personally vouch for how great Chrome for Mac is. I practically stopped using Safari and Firefox on my MacBook since I installed Chrome for Mac. You could really notice how face it loads pages and how simple the interface is. I’m also using Chrome for Windows on my office desktop and the extensions and bookmark synching features are definitely useful features.

So, you can just imagine how excited I am right now to try this out.  The new Chrome for Mac will give you access to the more than 2,200 extensions currently available in Chrome’s extensions gallery. If you’ve never tried using any of these extensions before, they are just similar to Firefox plugins and add-ons. Chrome Extensions adds useful, informative, fun and quirky functionality to the Chrome browser. And they are easy to manage as well.

If you haven’t tried Chrome on your Mac, now is the right time to do so. You may download the beta here, or if you are currently using Chrome for Mac version 4.0+,  the latest beta build will be automatically pushed out in the next few days. I can’t wait to try it out, really.

Originally posted on February 11, 2010 @ 5:51 pm

Mozilla Releases Mobile Firefox for Maemo, Android to Follow

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Mozilla just released their first mobile Firefox browser, running on Maemo platform. In case you’re not aware one of the mobile devices sporting this platform is the computer-like Nokia N900 handset. So, if you’re one of the probably few users of this handset, you might want to visit firefox.com/mobile using your N900.  Or if you want to be cautious about it, check out the FAQ first.

Better yet, check out these key features first, to help you decide whether you should install  the mobile Firefox on your Nokia N900. Firefox for Mobile lets you:

  • Go to your favorite sites in just a couple of keystrokes with intelligent and personalized searching
  • Sync your Firefox tabs, history, bookmarks and passwords between your desktop and mobile device for a seamless browsing experience
  • Customize your Firefox by adding small pieces of functionality, like games and news readers, that help make the mobile Web browser your own
  • Get maps and information relevant to your location
  • View open tabs as thumbnails to easily identify and select the Web page you’d like to go to next
  • Get an Instant Web Site ID and easily access and edit security settings

What’s great about Firefox Mobile is that it’s probably the first mobile web browser that supports browser add-ons. Yeah, I envy  you N900 users and I’m seriously hoping that Mozilla releases an Android version, specifically for Nexus One soon.

The mobile Firefox add-ons let you cusztomize the browser by adding extra features such as AdBlock Plus, URL Fixer, TwitterBar, language translators and definitely more. In fact, there are already more than 40 of these add-ons that you can use after you’ve installed mobile Firefox.

So, if you’re a Nokia N900 user, check out Mozilla Firefox mobile now. And if you’re an Android phone user like me, let’s wait a while for the Android version to come out.

Originally posted on January 30, 2010 @ 5:04 pm