Add-ons, Installation Experiences, and User Consent
As discussed in previous blog posts, add-ons can have a material impact on browser performance. IE measures the performance of add-ons so that users can make informed decisions about them. It is important to understand how add-ons arrive on a user’s system to begin with because browser performance is so important to site developers and to con [...]
10.62 Release Candidate
It is about time for an update to our stable branch and hence we have a nice new 10.62 build for you. The fixes listed below are since the 10.61 final. Since this is a release candidate please let us know if you see any regressions since 10.61 and remember fixes to 10.70 that are missing are not regressions! ;)Note: These packages have the old non- [...]
Exploring IE9's Enhanced DOM Capabilities
For IE9 Platform Preview 4, we significantly re-architected how the Chakra JavaScript engine integrates into IE. This re-architecture, described in Dean’s post, subtly changes the programming model of the DOM for IE9 standards mode, making it consistent with new ECMAScript 5 capabilities, more interoperable with other browsers and aligned wit [...]
Back to the future: two years of Google Chrome
Watching the 1985 classic Back to the Future last night, I was struck by how much things can change with time. The main character Marty McFly travels 30 years back in time, only to find that his house hadn’t been built yet, skateboards hadn’t been invented and nobody had ever heard rock ‘n roll.Looking back today on Chrome’s second annivers [...]
Add-on Performance part 2: Helping consumers make informed decisions
The platform previews show the focus in IE9 on performance, interoperable HTML5 through same markup, and hardware acceleration. We’ve also posted here about the work we’ve done with add-on developers, and we shared some data about add-on performance and how we measure it. In this post, we cover more of our thinking about measuring add- [...]
Getting Ready for SVG Open
I recently demonstrated Test Driving Modern SVG using the SVG Dice sample currently on the Internet Explorer 9 Test Drive site. While building this sample, I learned that both performance and interoperability for SVG are a subtle continuum and are not binary. This point resonated with me so much that I modified my presentation for this week’s SVG [...]
Performance: Profiling how different web sites use browser subsystems
When we first showed IE9 at the Professional Developers Conference last fall, we discussed how real world browser performance involves many different subsystems. Different websites use these subsystems in different ways, and to build a fast real world browser you have to start by understanding these overall patterns. This post provides an inside lo [...]
Dialogs and text input
New week, and a new snapshot. :hat:We have fixed the mail panel regression introduced with the previous snapshot, and improved on dialog modality on Mac. Mac users on older system will also find a very pleasant fix for ‘the slow typing issue.’ (Will be available in an upcoming Opera 10.62 update for the PowerPC crowd too.)Known regressionsDSK-3 [...]
The End of an Architecture
We have some sad news for the 0.1% of our users who are still on the PowerPC architecture.Starting with the Next version of Opera, as of the next snapshot release (due sometime later today), we are discontinuing the PowerPC architecture on Mac and Linux. Opera 10.6x will be the last release with support for this architecture. This is unfortunate, b [...]
Arcade Fire, HTML5 and Chrome
Today we’re excited to launch a musical experience made specifically for the browser, called “The Wilderness Downtown.” The project was created by writer/director Chris Milk with the band Arcade Fire and Google. “The Wilderness Downtown” is set to Arcade Fire’s new song “We Used to Wait”, and showcases many of the latest development [...]
More on SVG
The first IE9 Platform Preview unveiled IE9’s initial support of SVG. As explained previously, SVG is a vector image format managed by the W3C. The release of the third and fourth Platform Previews come with feature-complete SVG. Major additions include support for SVG gradients, patterns, clipping, and masking. These features are often used to c [...]
Fennec Alpha Released for Android and Nokia N900
The Alpha release of the next major version of Fennec is now available for Android and Nokia N900 users to download and test. Fennec (codename for Firefox mobile) is the first mobile browser to offer add-ons and is built on the same technology that powers desktop Firefox. The latest version of Fennec builds on the [...]
Chakra: Interoperability Means More Than Just Standards
How do we decide whether to implement a feature that isn’t included in a standards specification? Like all browser providers, we often have to make this decision. In this post, I’ll use some real-world JavaScript examples to illustrate some of the principles we use to deliver an interoperable browser when the standards specification isn’t eno [...]
Bug fixing Wednesday on a unified build number
A nice bunch of fixes coming right up! :)We are now using the same build number on all platforms. This should make it easier to coordinate your bug reports and comments (hint, hint) as we’ll know for sure you are all talking about the same build.Known regressionsDSK-311417 (Crash on expanding items in the mail panel) DSK-307161 [Windows] (Mouse n [...]
Firefox 4 Beta Updated with Sync and Panorama
The latest update to Firefox 4 Beta is now available with new features that offer more control over your Web experience. This release lets you own and control your personal Web experience by syncing your data across devices, and by helping you organize your tabs in order to juggle and [...]
Making Sites Look Their Best in Standards Mode
IE has traditionally drawn a 2-pixel border around the content area of a site. This border, drawn as part of the page rather than IE’s frame, affects calculations of distance from the top and left of the page. It also creates a not-so-modern beveled look. In the fourth Platform Preview, you’ll notice pages running in IE9’s Standar [...]
Mitchell Baker Honored as the Recipient of Frost & Sullivan’s 2010 Growth, Innovation and Leadership Award
Today, Mitchell Baker was announced as the recipient of Frost & Sullivan’s 2010 Growth, Innovation and Leadership Award. Mitchell will be honored for her achievements at the annual GIL 2010 event in Silicon Valley on September 13, 2010. The award honor was announced in a press release issued by Frost & Sullivan, excerpt below: “Profiled in TIME [...]
More ways to find the right Chrome Extension for you
A few months ago, we launched several categories of featured Chrome extensions to help you find the right one. Today, in addition to updating these pages with new extensions, we are also launching more categories to enhance your web experiences in News and weather, Photos, Productivity, Search tools and Social.If you have a busy life online and off [...]
Kenneth Russell is now a WebKit reviewer!
Kenneth is one of the members of the WebGL working group and has been contributing to its implementation in WebKit for over a year. He is beginning to branch out by working on GPU acceleration for more areas in WebKit’s rendering. Please join me in congratulating Kenneth on his reviewer status!
Content blocker synchronization, and *nix fixes
It has been a while since we added something to Opera Link, but with this "10.70" snapshot, we are introducing synchronization of the content blocker. This makes it easy to build and maintain a list of blocked items anywhere you go.This snapshot also has a few Linux/FreeBSD fixes.Known issuesExisting URLs might not be synchronized: If you already h [...]
Microsoft to Co-Chair New W3C Web Performance Working Group
Earlier this morning the W3C announced the formation of a new Web Performance Working Group chartered with making it easier to accurately measure web application performance. Enabling web developers to understand the real world performance characteristics of their applications is critical to the success of HTML5, and we’re excited to have bee [...]
New 10.70 snapshot: Synchronizing build numbers (almost)
It's been a few days since the previous 10.70 snapshot, so we decided it was time to do another one.If you look at the build numbers, you will notice that Mac and Unix use the same number. We are currently working on synchronizing build numbers across desktop platforms, and this is the first step. Windows will hopefully follow in the near future.No [...]
IE9, Opacity, and Alpha
IE9 introduces support for the CSS3 Color Module, including its popular opacity property. As we have done with other standards-based features, opacity is implemented so that the same markup used in other browsers just works in IE9’s standard mode. Internet Explorer 8 and earlier versions implemented an alternative mechanism to apply opac [...]
Announcing…MathML!
If you’ve been following check-ins for the last year or so, then you already know that some dedicated contributors have been working on a MathML implementation in WebKit. I am very pleased to announce that the implementation is now turned on by default in the WebKit build and in WebKit Nightlies! Big thanks to Alex [...]
Add-ons, and Opting out of Google Analytics Without Them
Recently, Google made available the “Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.” This add-on enables consumers to “indicate that information about the website visit should not be sent to Google Analytics.” We agree that making it easy for consumers to protect their privacy is good, and Internet Explorer offers a variety of fea [...]
Instantly zap links, maps and phone numbers to your Android phone with Chrome to Phone!
Ever wanted a way to quickly and easily send links and other information from your desktop or laptop to your phone to view on the go? The new Chrome to Phone extension adds a button to your Google Chrome browser that instantly sends the current web page, map, YouTube video, or selected phone number or text to your Android device running Froyo (or A [...]
Opera 10.61 released
HeiWe just released 10.61. Changelog can be found: http://www.opera.com/docs/changelogs/windows/1061/Thanks for your testing effort. We will likely continue with a double set of "snapshots" here on the desktop team.Continuing with 10.7 (or whatever it will eventually be called) and 10.62The bugfixing continues ;-) ... [...]
Add-on Guidelines and Requirements in Action – Upgrade Advisor
We’ve blogged in the past about guidelines and requirements that we’ve published to help add-on developers create quality add-ons. We wrote these guidelines based on years of providing support to users and developers in response to questions from the developer community. We’ve shared several great examples of these guidelines and requi [...]
Newest Update to Firefox 4 Beta
The latest update of Firefox 4 Beta is now available for download and testing in more than 30 languages, adding 10 new languages. This update includes multi-touch support for Windows 7 and new JavaScript values to experience faster and smoother graphics. We also have vital feedback from our testers that we will incorporate into future [...]
Martin Robinson is a WebKit reviewer!
Now, I know everyone wants posts about cool new features, and I assure you: they are coming! For the time being, I would like to invite everyone to join me in congratulating Martin Robinson on his reviewer status! Martin has been doing a huge amount of work on improving the foundations for the cairo and GTK+ [...]
