Home » Tag: IE

Safari 4 beta : The fastest web browser?

If it is not because of the benchmark result that confirm Safari 4 is faster than Firefox and the rest of web browser, I’m probably still not using full version Safari browser. I do use Safari, but only on Iphone.

safari url Safari 4 beta : The fastest web browser? But before that, there is something I want to show you.  This post was initially drafted in Wordpress using Safari 4 beta, but I was hit by 1 bug when I attempt to create link using Wordpress’s add/edit link feature. The lightbox JavaScript covered the whole page including the windows where I suppose to add the URL. It stay there with nothing I can do except close that page. Quite disappointing.

Let’s forget that. Despite that unwanted bug (or probably my computer setup, I’ve no idea), there are 150 features that you can try it out although normal user like me won’t probably use 100% of them. As this is Apple’s product, you can expect the minimalistic but excellent user interface, beauty, tough and etc.

Back to the real reason of this post which is about the benchmark, Safari 4 and the rest of its rival were fared against each other in rendering Javascript using SunSpider. The result put the Safari 4 beta on the top of the list (smaller the better) with IE7 on distant last position.

1) Safari 4 (Total time: 910ms)
2) Mozilla Minefield 3.2a1 (1,136ms)
3) Google Chrome (1,177ms)
4) Firefox 3 (3,250ms)
5) Opera 9.6 (4,076ms)
6) Internet Explorer 8 (5,839ms)
7) Internet Explorer 7 (39,026ms)

The milliseconds gap between them is hardly can be noticed by human eye, but since the point of the benchmark is to show who is the fastest, it still a win for Safari 4. But the result is critical figure to the web browser developer, as a selling point to compete for bigger chunk of web browser market.

It still early to say if I’ll start using Safari frequently. I have IE, Firefox, Flock, Avant and Chrome on this computer and Safari 4 is just another addition to my web browser collection.  I end up with Firefox and Chrome, and Safari might be next.

Apple fan might have downloaded it once it is released, but for anybody else, you can try it here.

blogjer in safari Safari 4 beta : The fastest web browser?

Admin 27 February 2009 Software , , , , , , , , , , 7 Comments

Internet Explorer 8 RC1

I know I’m late. That’s because of this.

Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate (RC) has been released few days ago, which means it is nearing the fully functional release. Although it is the most widely used internet browser in the world, because it is default web browser on Windows which is the most used OS in the world as well , it is less popular among geeks and bloggers who prefer Mozilla Firefox and Chrome.

I jumped over from IE6 to IE8, so I’m not too sure what are available on IE7. So does the previous and current company that I’m working with (An American & European company respectively), which still stick on IE6 for reasons largely due to to application incompatibility with IE7. No comments about that.

I just tried IE8 few times today, there are few enhancement and new features that quite interesting.

One of most discussed features is accelerator . To be honest, I find this feature quite useful but that doesn’t mean it is necessary. Basically it provide you with a quick access or shortcut to do something upon finding something that interesting. For instance, you want to share the football result with your friends via email, which you can do it immediately from the result page itself.

accelerator 450x163 Internet Explorer 8 RC1

instant search Internet Explorer 8 RC1 Instant search is just like Firefox’s search bar which incorporated few search providers, except that you can switch between search providers and get a new suggested search phrase without leaving the drop down list.

Love to see if the IE add-ons can be expandable and more supportable by third party application developers just like Firefox. IE add-ons are no longer just as if it is active-x kind of stuff that run at the background. Some of add-ons are now accessible via Accelerator, just like Firefox’s browse extension.

There are also Developers Tools for developer purpose.

Performance wise, in some parts, it still lagging behind Firefox and Chrome although there are slight improvement such as the start up time. But this slowness is not obvious to the average user.

Try the new IE8 RC1 here.

Admin 29 January 2009 Software , , , , 5 Comments

Your browser is lowtech.. are you kidding me?

dhl Your browser is lowtech.. are you kidding me?

A friend of mine trying to track his goods’s shipment online from DHL website using iPhone’s web browser,  when something funny happens. The site content did not displayed correctly, and together with this error message.

low tech Your browser is lowtech.. are you kidding me?

What?? My iPhone is a low tech (imitating his surprise)?Feeling dissatisfied, he open the website from Macbook’s Safari but unfortunately end up with the same outcome as well.

Apparently it is not the the limitation of Safari, but most likely due to the DHL’s website that doesn’t support Safari. However, it run fine in Firefox, Avant, IE 6 & 7.

Actually, this ‘fun’ error can be replicated in other browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome) as well. Click on the first URL below, which bring you to the site that displays the above error message. The second URL which looks identical with the first URL, except on the .low and .high part, which  show the site’s content correctly.

http://www.dhl.com/publish/content/g0/en/services/shippingtools.low.html

http://www.dhl.com/publish/content/g0/en/services/shippingtools.high.html

Google has apparently indexed all these pages. To google similar message,  click here

Admin 16 January 2009 Fun & Entertainment , , , , No Comments

How to switch Google Chrome release channel/version

Google Chrome 2.0 pre beta(dev channel) has been released with more new features included. GoogleSystem has gone extra miles by illustrating these features into the post together with screen shot. It is very useful indeed, a pictures is worth a thousand word.

Pre-beta channel/version is usually unstable, and containing a lot of bugs. Although public users are not recommended to use this version/channel, but it is common that everybody want to get taste of something that had just been released.

So how to do upgrade and if the beta version give you more trouble than productivity, how to downgrade it. This is the steps that I’ve tried this morning.

Upgrading channel/version

1. Backup your Chrome data (favorites, profile and etc). As per dev chrome page -

Make a copy of the User Data\Default directory (for example, copy it to ‘Default Backup’ in the same location). The location depends on your operating system:

Windows XP: \Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\

2. Download Chrome Channel Changer.

3. If you don’t have Chrome installed, download and install it first.

4. Run Chrome Channel Manager and choose the desired channel.

chrome channel manager How to switch Google Chrome release channel/version

Why you have to run Chrome Channel Manager? Without doing this, your the Chrome installed is updated as per that channel. So no button update shown to you.

Before you choose other channel/release
chrome 1 How to switch Google Chrome release channel/version

After you choose other channel, an update button will appear.
chrome 2 How to switch Google Chrome release channel/version

5. In Google Chrome, click the wrench menu and choose About Google Chrome. Click on ‘Update Now’

update now How to switch Google Chrome release channel/version

Once completed, you’ll be asked to restart the Chrome and there you go your latest Chrome!!

chrome 3 How to switch Google Chrome release channel/version

Downgrading

1. Reinstall Chrome.
[notes] Clicking the ‘Download Google Chrome’ button doesn’t seems working if you already have Chrome installed on your computer. I have to uninstall it, before make a new fresh install.

2. ‘Stable channel’ would be the default channel. (optional)Run Chrome Channel Changer if you want to go for ‘Beta’ channel

3. Replace back the ‘User Data’ with the backup data. Keep in mind that different channel has difference configuration. The profile from the latest channel is not compatible  with previous channel

Lesson learned

If found this  article quite misleading about how to move back to the original channel, I spend sometime to digest this ‘guide’ before I found the right document on Chromium dev page themselves. Lesson learned..

…. then download the Chrome Channel Changer (.exe link); run that app and select the developer channel. Then open Chrome, click the wrench menu and choose “About Google Chrome” where you’ll need to click “Update Now” to install the current channel’s release. After that you’ll need to restart Chrome.

If the 2.0 alpha doesn’t live up to your stability expectations, just reverse the instructions to get the stable version back.

From dev channel page

If you decide to switch from Dev to Beta or from Beta to Stable, the new channel will be on an earlier version of Google Chrome. You won’t get automatic updates on that channel until it reaches a version later than what you’re already running.

You can uninstall Google Chrome and re-install from http://www.google.com/chrome to go back to an earlier version. (If you want to be on the Beta channel, you have to run the channel changer again after re-installing).

Admin 10 January 2009 Software , , , , , 3 Comments
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