A very cool change landed in Firefox 3.1. View source will now create links where appropriate (a rather old bug I might add). I must have copy/pasted millions of URL’s over the years out of view source so that I can look at a JS or CSS. This is an immense help for anyone who does this quite often.
Just another great piece of polish for Firefox 3.1.
The big story over the past 24 hours is Steve Ballmer’s statements regarding WebKit:
“Open source is interesting,” he said. “Apple has embraced Webkit and we may look at that, but we will continue to build extensions for IE 8.”
I’m not to thrilled to read this:
Mr. von Tetzchner said that Opera’s engineers have developed a version of Opera Mini that can run on an Apple iPhone, but Apple won’t let the company release it because it competes with Apple’s own Safari browser.
This isn’t news, it’s been known for a while. I’m honestly wondering why Opera invested the development time with this in mind.
Apple’s going to learn the hard way that if it doesn’t drop this clause it’s going to be subject to Android’s wrath. Android is going to take some time to gather steam (I’d guess at least 18 months before it can catch up to the iPhone due to it still being pretty clunky and limited in availability) but when it does it catch up, it could be problematic.
It would be great to see a iPhone version of Fennec, but until Apple wises up, it’s not going to happen.
I predict just like Apple initially had a “no third party applications” policy, this too will change once it becomes obvious that this will end up hurting them in the long run. The question remains: how long will that take?
This is the first time I’ve ever seen a Firefox Add-on used as a way to make a political statement. An Add-on called China Channel will replicate in Firefox what it’s like to be behind the Great Firewall of China. So if you want to see what it’s like not being able to read about Tibet or other content China doesn’t approve of, this is a good chance. It appears to use proxy servers in China to replicate the experience.
Perhaps the next version will let you toggle between China’s Great Firewall and Australia’s Great Firewall’s (currently in development). I should note Iran and Saudi Arabia are also known for extreme censorship on the internet.
[Via: icanhascheezburger.com]
It’s interesting to watch mobile web browsing UI develop. This is really the first time since web browsers existed that they have received a large overhaul. Sure things like tabs are “major”, but when you really look at it, Safari, Chrome, IE, Firefox are all strikingly similar to the original Mosaic (this is 1.0 running on Windows XP):
I’m not sure who’s idea it was to put the title in the UI like that, especially in a time when displays were small. That was a gigantic waste of space. The address bar in this version is read only, you need to select open and enter your URL there. Other than that, it’s pretty much the same browser UI since 1993. That’s right, 15 years of really the same user interface. The window to the web has always looked that way. There’s now bookmarking, a fancier address bar, favicons, and a search box. Firefox goes nuts by letting users install add-ons. Overall: Not very different.
There’s a few reasons why it hasn’t changed too much. First of all, it’s a pretty good design. Minus some quirks which were worked out pretty fast, it’s effective. If it wasn’t the web wouldn’t have caught on. Secondly, people know how to use it already. Why make people re-learn?
The mobile space is different yet surprisingly the same. Like days of old there’s a need to conserve screen space. Unlike days of old there’s no reason to believe it will get bigger since small phones are always desirable. Until screens are foldable, the iPhone is about as big as you’ll see. Even when phones get thinner and lighter, the screen size won’t likely get any larger since it will be awkward to hold and put in your pocket.
With a touch screen you can only make items in the UI as small as a fingerprint. Any smaller and they are unusable to people. A stylus while clunkier and more awkward allows for a much more compact UI. This leaves very little space to get a lot accomplished. Too add to the complexity of the problem websites are designed for big displays meaning there’s a lot to cram into a small space.
Apple’s allegedly making a pretty interesting change to iPhone 2.2. Safari will break out the search box into a more desktop-like separate box. This results in a smaller address bar and the reload icon being moved inside the URL bar. I think the reason for this is to better parody the desktop, and remind users they can search from the browser chrome.
To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure the address bar is even needed in a mobile browser on a touchscreen device. Unlike a desktop you can’t type directly into it because of the small size. Your essentially going to another UI to enter the text anyway. Why not just make it a button? You could argue you need the address bar as a way to know where you are. Of course you can likely merge it with the Title to accomplish that. All that’s needed in the main UI is the title and hostname. That can be all in the title of the window. I think I’d prefer a back button more than the address bar on a mobile device. Of course if I could tap or tilt the device to go backwards or forwards that would be cool too. One less thing for the UI.
The most similar to this is Fennec.
On a side note, thanks to Apple’s insane SDK licensing and app store policy it is unlikely to ever live on an iPhone. Maybe one day Apple will realize that just like 3rd party applications (something they were originally against), an even more open device would be even more enticing. But I digress.
Another concept I’d really love to see and experiment with is a dual screen format. Similar to that of the Nintendo DS. This would be perfect for a flip phone style smart phone. As phones can be made thinner folding them over is an option to keep the physical device small enough for portability but the display size can then be doubled. By the time the iPhone can be made half the thickness (remember the iPod G1 was much thicker than it is now) this is feasible.
There are several fun things about this design. First of all you essentially Optimus Maximus keyboard on your phone. Secondly you can now separate the content from the chrome in applications. Perfect for things like web browsers. This is also handy for watching movies as controls don’t overlay video but are still available. It also would be great for multi-tasking.
That’s where I predict things will ultimately go. We’re once again in the era of Bar form phones. Anyone remember the Nokia 1100/5110/3210/3310 fad a few years ago? Then flip phones came back in style. The flip phone style also has the advantage of protecting the internal display from scratches and involuntary button pressing.
It will be fun to see how the interface evolves. I’m relatively certain despite all the different UI prototypes surfacing right now regarding web browsers, as they mature they will adopt features from each other and become surprisingly similar to each other.
iPhone Safari image via Wired. Nintendo DS image via Wikipedia Commons]
I also would love to see camera:// and <input type="camera"> in HTML5. Thirding Daniel Glazman and Asa Dotzler.
With the proliferation of user generated content from YouTube to video comments, making video easier to use in a more standardized way is better for the web. Considering the growth of online video, in particular user generated video, it seems to be an obvious fit.
Looks like SquirrelFish is already “dead”. There’s now SquirrelFish Extreme (SFX). You can see some benchmark comparisons here.
In the past few months, TraceMonkey, V8 and SquirrelFish.
I suspect the next place is going to be improving DOM performance. At some point JS performance (in feel) is going to be limited by the ability to display what’s been processed. Part of that will be DOM speed. There’s also gfx speed, which Mozilla has already done some good work in prepping for. Utilizing Cairo has been a good start. There’s discussion of OpenGL and taking advantage of the GPU. Once this “my JS is faster than yours” phase is over, that’s where I expect things to go.
This one has potential for alternative captions. If your feeling creative, leave a comment.
Hat Tip: I Can Has Cheezburger
Google is now promoting Google Chrome on it’s homepage. Just a few days after release. Previously Firefox 2.0 was promoted on the homepage, a privilege normally reserved for Google products. The text link is a bit more subtle though. Maybe that’s because it’s beta and not 2.0.
It’s being shown to Firefox Safari and IE users. Interestingly it’s being shown to Mac users in addition to Windows users, despite no Mac support as of yet.
