Curious Geek

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a couple of weeks now, ever since the release of Opera 10.50 but I never seemed to find the time. However, today Microsoft announced Internet Explorer 9. This reminded me that I still had to write this post and gave me another good reason to!

I’ve always been willing to change my browser (unlike some) and I’m willing to accept that a new version of a browser can be radically different from the last version and well worth trying again.  This couldn’t be any more true when it comes to Opera latest release, Opera 10.50. I’ve never got on with Opera, I found it slow and its interface clumsy. I never had a desire for any of the extras Opera tacked onto the browser (BitTorrent etc.) and that was its only real selling point as far as I could see. Opera 10.50 is a whole new beast though. The UI is clean and yet still customisable, allowing me to hide features I don’t use and put the features I do use right where I want them. Its also blinding fast, it renders webpages well and seems to be able to handle whatever site I through at it. I’m tempted to say its even faster than Google Chrome. I have found some bugs though, and although none of them are showstoppers, it definitely feels a little rushed in some areas. Opera seemed to move from Beta to RC to Final release in under two weeks, that’s mighty fast and it’s bound to be a little rough around the edges. The reason they rushed it: The Browser Ballot screen in the EU. Opera wanted their latest and greatest ready for the general public and I’m sure that if people choose to install Opera 10.50, they will not look back. It’s also nice to see HTML5 support in Opera, paving the way to the future of the internet.

Despite Operas newly found speed, it was playing catch up and still is in some aspects to Google Chrome. Chrome quickly became the fastest browser around after its release in 2008 and it has recently started getting the attention it deserves. The interface is slick, fast and, when running the Stable builds, bug free. Google recently release extensions for Chrome, these have greatly improved the experience and definitely arn’t as detrimental to performance as some extensions in Firefox can be. It also has an amazingly fast engine under the hood, Rendering is quick as is Javascript and it manages (as does Opera) to score 100/100 on the Acid3 Test. Google are constantly pushing out new features to Chrome, and it’s growing all the time. It also offers advanced security features such as sandboxed tabs and allows the porn surfers of the world to created pivate tabs.

Next up is Internet Explorer. The pile of turd lying at the bottom of the browser podium. Its slow. Its clunky and it’s holding back the internet. I urge anybody running anything below version 8 of this browser to upgrade now, you’ll save cute animals from painful deaths. Infact don’t upgrade to version 8, go download Google Chrome. However, this may all change soon. Microsoft just announced Internet Explorer 9. It now supports CSS3 and HTML5, two technologies vital to the future of the internet. It also scores much better on the Acid3 test than previous versions of IE. It’s only 55/100 but its a start. Seeing Microsoft finally standardising their browser is nice and it can’t come soon enough. I’m eager to see the final release and if your even more eager than that, you can give the IE9 Preview a whirl.

The second most popular browser currently out there is Firefox. It gained massive popularity when they tried to break the world record for the most downloads in one day. It has always been a great alternative to Internet Explorer but has found itself a little slow when it comes up against some of the new boys. Recent releases have improved things but if browsing speed is what you want, then Firefox has fallen behind. Firefox does however still have a budding extension developer community. Some of the extensions out there are amazing and really add to the overall browsing experience and that’s why a lot of people will never leave Firefox. They can’t live without their extensions. For me, I’ve never used many extensions and it’s all about getting around the internet as fast as possible and that’s why Firefox just falls short of the mark. I’m hoping future releases will bring it up to to the same level of Chrome and Opera.

So there we have it a quick round up of 4 browsers. There are many others out there and they are all worth a try. I could have wrote about them all but in the end, only two browsers really matter at the moment as far as I’m concerned. Those two are Opera 10.50 and Google Chrome. I currently find myself mainly using Opera but I still occasionally open Chrome as it has been my long time favourite and still holds a place in my heart. It’s time to make your decision people, just please…don’t pick Internet Explorer. Not yet anyway.

P.S. I probably should have mentioned Safari 4…but I really don’t get on with its Interface. It is fast though.

Google has just announced it’s latest foray in Social Media. Its call Google Buzz and you’ll find it inside your GMail. This could be awesome as it will be pulling data from all the sites which matter. Twitter, Picasa, Youtube etc. Theres going to be loads of posts listing its details, so here’s a link to one as there’s no point me typing them all out again!

Once I have access to it and I’ve given it a spin, I’ll let you know my thoughts on it.

Well, everyone else in the world has now blogged about it, so I figure its now my turn.

It was possibly the most hyped event I’d ever seen, everybody knew what was going to be announced but despite all of that, I’m left feeling a little underwhelmed. I was hoping this would finally be an Apple product that I really desire, something that could change the way I live my life. I think I, along with most others, got drawn in by the hype and expected something amazing and new but in reality, were we ever going to get that?

What we did get, is essentially a big iPod Touch with 3G capabilities. What that means is that whilst we get a device with great software, its software that is lacking in many areas for a device of this size. If apple are trying to out net books with this device, there are some core features which it needs to bring to the table (the sooner the better if they want it to succeed).

The biggest issue I have, and its an issue I’m sure Apple are going to rectify eventually, is the lack of Multitasking for non Apple apps. Its something that all other mobile OS’s support and it should be here. A device which is trying to fill the gap between mobile and laptop needs to let me flick between applications without having to close them so I can be as productive as possible and at the moment, thats impossible with the iPad. I can’t even leave an internet radio station streaming in the background whilst I send an e-mail. If this comes with iPhone OS4.0, then for me the iPad,as well as the iPhone, will suddenly become a lot more appealing.

I won’t go into detail on other things that this device and Apples iPhone OS are missing as I really want to send home the message about the lack of Multitasking. It really is that important to me. However, some things I wish the iPad and the iPhone could do are:

• Output video to my TV – This is mainly a feature I see the iPad having. I really wish I could plug it into my TV (via HDMI) and watch the movies downloaded from iTunes, I know you can do it through the dock (via composite, urgh) but I shouldn’t need to buy a dock to do this.
• Notifications – Why oh why do Apple insist on forcing the pop-up notifications in their OS? Its annoying at the best of times. Just show me an icon in my status bar…i’ll get to the message when I’m ready to. Thanks.
• eBooks – No iBookstore in the UK? Shame and I hope it comes soon. However, I hope nobody is buying an iPad because it looks like a good eBook reader. It won’t have a scratch on Amazon’s Kindle, which has better battery life and uses e-ink so your eyes don’t melt after staring at a screen for 4 hours.
• Camera – A front facing camera would have been nice. Nearly all net books have this and I really thought the iPad would follow here.
• Flash – Apple…PLEASE let Adobe put flash into Safari. *Sigh*
• No USB – That means the only way to get data onto this thing is to transfer it through iTunes and store it on the iPad’s internal memory. I want to be able to browse a USB Flash drive or plug my camera into it and transfer my photos off it.

Despite these negatives though…it has plenty of positives. The browser will be great (Although absent of Flash as usual) and the App Store will continue to be a great source of Apps, its great that the iPad can run apps created for the iPhone. Its screen will be beautiful, LED backlit. Its got great connectivity (if you opt for the 3G version) and its going to be fast and slick thanks to that 1Ghz chip under the hood. However, nothing else is particularly exciting, just all the regular features you’d find in any smartphone these days. Thats all this really is, a big smartphone…thats not even a phone, or particularly smart. I’ll leave you with this image…

iPad Vs Blu-Tack

For more information check out:

The iPhoneBlog – Complete Specs
TheiPhoneBlog – What We Didn’t Get
Apple – iPad

I’ll most likely be writing up a Blog post tomorrow with my feelings on this seriously hyped device (assuming it gets announced today) but for now, here’s what we already know…

From http://www.thedoghousediaries.com/

Here’s another massive image for your enjoyment.

15 things about coffee...

Off I go to the Kitchen…

Seesmic have been around a while now and just released a new Desktop application, Seesmic Look. Seesmic recently took a short break from Desktop applications and branched out into mobile apps, which are reasonably decent although not the best on their respective platforms.

Seesmic Look

Seesmic have claimed they are trying to bring twitter to the masses with this new program and whilst I’m not so sure they will do that, it really is a beautiful application and it really showcases what good developers can do with WPF on Windows. The UI is sleek and shiny, everything moves so smoothly. Its easy to use and you don’t even have to log in to Twitter to use many of its features.

Seesmic Look

At the end of the day though, it is still Twitter and despite looking gorgeous, its not going to change how people use Twitter. To get the full benefit, you still need to log in to get your Timeline, DM’s, etc. The only feature that is really new is the playback feature and the way trending topics are shown when you first load Look, using the new Playback feature (Which is very pleasing to the eye). Its definitely a step in the right direction for Twitter clients and its by far the best I’ve seen or used to date and will now become my main client on my desktop.

Seesmic Look

So well done Seesmic, despite my few criticisms, you have create a wonderful way to interact with Twitter. You should definitely give it a try if you use Twitter, you will most definitely find yourself amazed at how pretty it is and how easy it now is to view tweets. I should quickly say, it did freeze once of twice for my on Windows 7, but its been pretty stable otherwise.

Seesmic Look

Loving this image that has been created to show how huge Twitter has become…

Click to Enlarge

Source: http://www.cartridgesave.co.uk/news/if-you-printed-twitter/

Well, I hope you aren’t all too hungover today, luckily I’m not despite having a little tipple last night. Its finally time to share some of this news that I’ve promising to spill over the past few days.

I’ve started developing Android applications and my Android apps now have their very own section on my portfolio website. If you head over there now (www.paulboocock.net) and have a look in the Android section, you’ll be able to get a glimpse of my first project, a widget called  Social Update.

I’ve also made some nice under the hood improvements to my site, including the navigation section. It now loads from an external php file which works out which link needs to be white depending on your current URL. Its my first attempt at php and I was really surprised at how easy it was, although I did only need a couple of simple if statements. I’ve also used a server side include (SSI) to load this navigation file so it should appear invisible to users, very nice indeed.

To load the external file, I simply used

<!–#include virtual=”menu.php” –>

at the location where I wanted my Navigation section on my page.

I also had to include a .htaccess file on my server so SSI’s worked.

.htaccess

Options +Includes

Options +FollowSymLinks

AddHandler server-parsed .htm .html

<?php

if (curPageName() == “index.htm”)

echo “<li><a href=\”index.htm\” class=\”whiteLink\”>Home</a></li>”;

else

echo “<li><a href=\”index.htm\” class=\”blackLink\”>Home</a></li>”;

?>

Its been a while since I’ve found the time to play some Flash Games, but I stumbled across a Telegraph article which gave me quite the inescapable urge to play.

I’m now completely hooked on Magic Pen, despite being probably the worst player to ever play it.

Magic Pen

Its quite simple. You have to get the Red Ball to the Flag using only shapes drawn by your “Magic Pen”. Everything reacts the way you would expect it to, to make an intoxicatingly addictive game. If you have 5 minutes, or 2 hours, you have to give Magic Pen a go.

If Magic Pen isn’t your thing, be sure to check out the Telegraph article I mentioned for 20 awesome flash games, including The Helicopter Game, one of my all time favourites.

If you have 6 minutes to spare, watching this short animation is probably one of the best ways to spend it.

Created by Lucas Martell as a side project to learn 3D animation, its turned out to be a brilliant short story with some gorgeous animation. You must give this a watch.

It looks even better in HD so if your connection can handle it, make sure you click that magical HD button.

It also has its own website, here.