Reviews Archive
Tuesday, December 16, 2008 2:15 PM/EST
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Yesterday, Dec. 15, I posted my review of the new Google Chrome browser, which is no longer a beta. Without a doubt Google Chrome is a very impressive new entry in the Web browser market and will have a big impact on how browser interfaces are built in the future.
But Google Chrome isn't without its own shortcomings. As I point out in the review, Chrome is the least customizable browser out today. And it has more than a few of the weaknesses typical in a 1.0 release.
Since posting the review, I've already had a few questions and comments from readers about issues that weren't covered in the review.
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Monday, December 08, 2008 4:54 PM/EST
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The Opera web browser, while trailing behind Firefox and IE in market share, is well known for being innovative and often the first to have features that are later found in other browsers.
But if users are expecting to see lots of cool new features and capabilities in the recently released alpha of Opera 10, they may be disappointed. That's because, like most alpha releases, the alpha of Opera 10 is focused mainly on developers and, especially in the interface, has little or no new features.
That doesn't mean that when Opera 10 eventually releases that it won't have innovative new features. But for now, this alpha release is mainly about showcasing the new Presto 2.2 browser engine and implementing support for lots of cutting edge web standards.
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Friday, December 05, 2008 2:07 PM/EST
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While many site providers have been intrigued by the idea of adding social networking capabilities, for the most part efforts in this area have been unsuccessful. This is mainly due to the fact that the last thing most people want to do is join yet another social network, especially one that is tied to a specific Web site.
But this week may see a big change in the ability of Web sites to add social networking capabilities. Both Google and Facebook released services that make it possible for Web sites to easily add social networking features that don't require visitors to join a brand-new social network.
For the last couple of days I've had the chance to test out the beta of Google Friend Connect. Google Friend Connect lets any Web site operator easily add functionality to a site that lets visitors join the site, see other users of the site, and participate in social networking activities such as commenting on and rating content.
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Monday, November 24, 2008 3:13 PM/EST
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With the browser wars back in full swing, Web surfers now have an unprecedented amount of choice when it comes to what browser they will use. However, along with choice can also come the unwelcome side effect of Web sites that display better in some browsers then in others (although, to be honest, the main culprits are sites that work in Internet Explorer and not other browsers).
This means that some Web users need to maintain multiple browsers on their systems, perhaps using Firefox as the main browser but keeping IE for some sites that require it. The best solution is of course for all sites and browsers to fully support standards, which would mean all Web sites would work the same on all browsers. But until that day another solution may be browsers that can run multiple browser engines.
This is the idea behind Lunascape5, a browser from Japan that can run the IE Trident engine, the Firefox Gecko engine and the WebKit engine that powers Apple's Safari and Google Chrome. While using the recently released alpha version of the browser, I was able to quickly switch between the three rendering engines for different sites and could even assign an engine to be always used whenever I visited a certain site.
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Thursday, November 13, 2008 1:20 PM/EST
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One of the most popular products in video from the last year or so isn't an advanced, high-quality camera; instead it's a tiny, no-frills digital camcorder that makes it very easy to shoot video and share or post it online.
Pure Digital Technologies' Flip Video camera is about the size of an iPod, is inexpensive and uses a switchblade USB jack to make it very simple to connect it to a computer in order to access the video. Traditionally the focus for the Flip lines has been more on ease of use than on high-quality video.
But with the release Nov. 12 of the Flip MinoHD, Pure Digital Technologies is providing high-definition video while still maintaining the same (or even better) usability.
The Flip MinoHD looks exactly like the already existing Flip Mino device; in fact, the only visible difference is the word MinoHD on the back. The MinoHD has the same touch-sensitive controls on the back, the same small preview screen and the same big red Record button.
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Friday, November 07, 2008 11:08 AM/EST
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With company budgets tightening up everywhere, more then a few common expenses are disappearing from plans. Typical casualties include employee training, product demo road shows and face-to-face briefings.
But the need to train employees to use new applications and products isn't going away, nor is the need to give detailed demonstrations of products to partners and potential customers. This, of course, makes screen recording products that can create rich demonstration and training videos more important than ever.
A longtime player in screen recording products is TechSmith, which recently released version 6 of their Camtasia Studio. Camtasia Studio 6 builds on the product's already good usability and functionality by adding several interesting new features, including the ability to create high-definition video presentations. And at a $299 pricepoint, Camtasia Studio comes in at less than half the cost of main competitor Adobe Captivate.
Camtasia Studio 6 includes several presets to help users create a video presentation geared for a specific format. These presets include options such as DVD, YouTube, iPhone and TechSmith's screencast.com service.
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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 2:57 PM/EST
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You're a social networking junkie. You can't stand to not know what the status of your friends is, what photos and videos are being uploaded, who is blogging about what, and what your friends are tweeting about right now.
Being this type of person means that you often have to have multiple browser windows and tabs open at all time, or that you are running several special purpose applications and plugins for the social networking sites that you rely on. Or you could just use the free Flock web browser.
Flock, which has been around for a few years now, is essentially a heavily customized implementation of Firefox. And almost all of this customization is geared towards making it simple to view, interact with and directly create content on Web 2.0 and social networking sites. In Flock, social networks like Facebook, video sites such as YouTube and multiple blogging platforms are all integrated into the browser.
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Tuesday, September 02, 2008 4:48 PM/EST
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REVIEW: Based on initial tests, Google Chrome looks to be an exciting and impressive new entry into the Web browser field.
Today a new player enters the browser wars and it represents the biggest change to the field since the day that Microsoft decided to take on Netscape. With the surprise launch of the beta of Google Chrome, the Web and search giant has already changed the current browser landscape and is poised to potentially change the future of the Web.
And before I go any further I just want to clarify that I've only had a short few hours with the new Google Web browser, and subsequent and sustained use may reveal issues that would change my view of the browser.
But right now, based on this short amount of testing, Google Chrome may just be the most impressive new Web browser that I have ever seen. While there are still a few beta hiccups, much of the experience of using Google Chrome just feels like the way that a browser should work.
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Friday, August 29, 2008 9:25 AM/EST
I've never been a big fan of Bluetooth mobile phone headsets. Typically, the second I stick one of those geeky devices in my ear I start making Locutus of Borg jokes.
Combine this with the general poor usability of these devices and it's been pretty easy for me to avoid assimilation by the Bluetooth wearing collective. But I've recently had the opportunity to test out a new device that may change my opinion on Bluetooth headsets.
At first glance the BlueAnt V1 looks just like any other Bluetooth headset, with its standard ear clip and blinking button. But there's one major difference. The BlueAnt V1 can be pretty much totally controlled through voice commands.
The BlueAnt V1 is powered by the BlueGenie Voice Interface software that can remarkably work on such a small and simple device. With this software, the BlueAnt V1 comes pretty close to a fully hands-free mobile phone experience and justifies the device's $129.99 price tag.
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Wednesday, August 27, 2008 3:06 PM/EST
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REVIEW: Beta 2 of Internet Explorer 8 shows promise with strong privacy controls and new usability features.
Despite its market dominance, Internet Explorer has been in many ways the browser that was left behind. IE 6 has lasted well beyond its freshness date and IE 7 was at best a small upgrade that still left the Microsoft browser behind competitors.
But based on initial tests of Beta 2 of Internet Explorer 8, it looks like Microsoft may be on track to release the first significantly improved version of its browser since the release of IE 5 in 1999. IE 8 Beta 2 includes many new features that improve the usability, stability and security of the browser and while many of the new capabilities are basically Microsoft playing catch-up to Firefox and Opera, IE 8 actually showcases a few browsing innovations of its own.
Of course, keep in mind that this is definitely a beta and in the first few days of testing IE 8 Beta 2 has proven to be very unstable (though I did a get a very good and frequent look at the new tab and site recovery features), and a surprisingly large number of popular Web sites needed to be viewed in the browser's IE 7 compatibility mode. Because of this I recommend that only Web developers and the technically curious try out this beta and anyone needing to do serious work with a stable browser should stay well away.
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