Aja Lapus

Tag: Opera

  • Safari 3 Beta for Windows

    Last time when I was reviewing new releases of Windows Web browsers, I was hoping I could get my hands on a Mac—or at least the money to buy one—so I could review Safari as well. But, I don’t think I would be drooling for it any sooner. I was browsing my Live Bookmarks when I saw a post from WaSP announcing the release of Safari 3 Public Beta for Mac and Windows. Yes, you heard it right … Safari’s new public beta is made for Windows as well!

    I don’t think I’d be switching from Mozilla Firefox, though, especially now that Firefox 3 is nearing its release. Besides, common shortcuts I use with Firefox don’t work with Safari such as tab switching [Ctrl+Tab], open new tab [Double-click on Tab Bar], and maybe many more[1] that it has to have some getting used to. But, as a Web developer, it sure is very convenient to have four major browsers—Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Apple Safari, and Windows Internet Explorer—on a single box for cross-browser testing.

    Contrary to what Yuga said, I think Safari is fast. It loaded my home page’s Extended Live Archives and some other DOM scripts lag-free. But, the startup isn’t as fast as Opera’s still.

    So if you will, you could download Safari 3 Public Beta from Apple.

    1. ^ I’ve only been using it for just about 30 minutes.

  • Redesign At Long Last

    I have announced a redesign more than a month ago, but since WP 2.2 has been delayed, I decided to delay it as well. It’s finished now … well, almost. The upgrading process and the redesign exhausted me. So this post will just be a placeholder. Place your comments here, but I will surely edit this entry later.

    I was just worried about some things the upgrade did to my database, it seems that some non-Latin characters was converted to something else. I will investigate on this matter after I wake up later this morning.

    *after waking up this afternoon*

    After years of having single color accents, I’ve decided to take on dual-color accents to be used on this new design. I just love having complementary orange and blue on almost anything, now they’re on my Web site as well.

    Some pages still wouldn’t work, and some are still being rewritten. The new Projects page will be used to organize all my work including Web development and WordPress plugin development pages.

    This design has been tested on Firefox 2.0.0.x, Opera 9.x and Internet Explorer 7. I may include some bug fixes for Internet Explorer 6 as I discover it, but don’t count on it.

    Credits go to Feed Icons for the standard feed icon, and to FamFamFam for the cute little Silk icons I’ve used throughout the whole site.

    Thanks to Arvin for pointing out that my comment form didn’t work. I’ve only used id attributes on the form elements that browsers handling HTML-compatible XHTML wouldn’t process as query string variable names like what they do on name attributes.

    Criticisms are welcome. 🙂

  • The Second Browser War Round 2

    Upgrade to Firefox 2 Now! Though Windows Internet Explorer 7 came out earlier than Mozilla Firefox 2 for about a couple of weeks, I could not help but to announce that my favorite Web browser just released its second major update. But do not forget Opera 9 as it offers a faster and lighter browser for someone who would just want to surf the Web.

    The browser wars have just stepped up to the next level. For now, here are some comparisons with my own opinions and rankings:

    Web Standards Compliance

    1. Firefox 2 and Opera 9

      Though Opera 9 has been the only browser on the Windows platform to pass the WaSP Acid2 test, Firefox 2 is the only browser to ever support JavaScript 1.7. Both have considerable support for Web standards on XHTML and CSS under most circumstances (as Acid2 tests for uncommonly used standards support).

    2. Internet Explorer 7

      They say that they have improved support for standards on Internet Explorer 7 but when I test sites that break on Internet Explorer 6, they still break on version 7. Besides, support for the proper XHTML media type, application/xhtml+xml, would cause Internet Explorer 7 (as well as earlier versions) to look for an external application that supports it.

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    Customizability

    1. Firefox 2

      With so many user-contributed addons, from Web development tools, custom toolbars and multimedia entertainment addons to usability, accessibility and Web services integration tools, the possibilities are endless.

    2. Internet Explorer 7

      The only thing that I think would work on Internet Explorer 7 is the ability to add custom toolbars which are usually from search engine and portal companies such as Google and Yahoo!

    3. Opera 9

      I really do not know how we could customize Opera though its suite of applications such as a good download manager, mail/newsgroups and BitTorrent clients all in a lightweight package contribute to its popularity.

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    Security

    1. Firefox 2 and Opera 9

      I haven’t researched much about the security differences of both these browsers, but I know since the majority of users are using Internet Explorer (with the automatic update to 7 on the start of November) they are more likely to be targetted that way. Both have good popup blockers and Firefox 2 has a phishing checker.

    2. Internet Explorer 7

      Still is the most widely used (or will be with automatic updates) browser and the most vulnerable to attacks. Though the integration with Windows has been cut off, support for ActiveX controls remains as an opt-in feature. It’s much better than Internet Explorer 6 though. It has a popup blocker and it has (currently) a better phishing checker than Firefox 2 has, according to some site. (I can’t seem to find the link right now, to be posted as an edit later.)

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    Page Load

    1. Firefox 2 and Opera 9

      Based on my experience, both of these browsers load pages faster than Internet Explorer 7 though I still haven’t compared them to one another.

    2. Internet Explorer 7

      Even with Internet Explorer 6, whenever I switch from Firefox to Internet Explorer (for Web page layout rendering), the latter would load a page slower. I think the phishing checker of Internet Explorer 7 made it worse as it always waits for it to finish (and it’s not that fast) before starting to load a page.

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    System Performance

    1. Opera 9

      Loads up on your system much faster than Firefox 2 though I still haven’t compared it to Internet Explorer 7 for they are both perceivably fast to load on my system.

    2. Internet Explorer 7

      Loads up faster than Firefox 2 though the Scobleizer says that it consumes more memory than Firefox 2 without even finishing to load the same pages Firefox 2 has. The Lifehacker also published another comparison.

    3. Firefox 2

      Loads for the longest time compared to the other two but the said reason for this is the different language used to render its chrome to provide support for its themes/skins. It also receives criticisms for high memory usage.

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    Interface

    1. Firefox 2

      Cleanest and simplest interface [but with elegant looking buttons] to get you started surfing right away. Just lacks the default new tab button to familiarize new users with tabbed browsing though it can be added with toolbar customization. It’s skinnable as well.

    2. Opera 9

      Feels very much like a standard Web browser interface [as with Firefox 2 and Internet Explorer 6] though some search boxes are more suitable for Web shoppers rather than the average Web surfer or Web developer. It also offers color schemes to suit every user’s taste.

    3. Internet Explorer 7

      Very compact, works without a menu bar, but just plain confusing with a very far stop and refresh button especially when you are used to Internet Explorer 6—users could be more familiar with Firefox 2 and/or Opera 9 this way.

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    Other Features

    1. Firefox 2 and Opera 9

      I could not seem to summarize them all, just take a look at the Mozilla Firefox 2 features page and the Opera 9 features page.

    2. Internet Explorer 7

      It features many things that makes it better compared to Internet Explorer 6 than to Firefox 2 and Opera 9 since both the latter browsers offer these features new to Internet Explorer 7. The complete list can be found on the Internet Explorer 7 features page.

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  • Cross-browser testing, yet again

    I have read about Internet Explorer 7: Beta 2 Preview the day after it was released [20th of March]. The developers say it is rendering-behavior complete so I downloaded it to test my pages for rendering issues but it seemed to be having trouble detecting my Internet connection that I ditched it immediately hoping it to be better on the final release. Also, my father always had trouble dealing with new software, especially web browsers, so I really did not consider it staying installed in my PC because he still uses IE6 instead of the system’s default Firefox browser [which is also because of his lack of adaptive skills on browsers] that if IE7 was installed it will technically be a new browser to get used to.

    I have just discovered earlier this morning a way to use IE7 as a standalone browser. I was happy that I would not have to install it again to replace IE6, therefore, enabling me to cross-browser test with four different browsers — four different rendering engines [i.e., Firefox, Opera, IE6 and IE7].

    But, now that I have the new MSIE7 [prefixed for unambiguity] with improved native rendering features, testing it on my web site proved it still doesn’t come near to what Dean Edwards has done with JavaScript on his IE7 “plugin” for browsers prior to the real MSIE7. Needless to say, I still have to hack my CSS or at least get Dean’s IE7’s content-generating module to work on MSIE7 for this web site uses a lot of content-generation from CSS to improve readability especially with lists.

    *sigh* So much for a hack-free Web every standards advocate dreams to come very soon.

    elliptical trainer