Mozilla founder is right: Firefox has lost it

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

I’ve written in the past about my defection from Firefox to Chrome as my default browser, and was called everything from a “troll” to a “little bitch” for moaning about its increasingly slovenly performance and constant nagging.

Now, it appears even Mozilla’s friends are turning on Firefox. The browser’s co-founder, Blake Ross, was reportedly asked on a web forum whether he felt Firefox could maintain even double-digit market share over the next five years (it currently has around 25% of the worldwide market, according to Net Applications). He replied:

“I’m pretty sceptical. I think the Mozilla Organisation has gradually reverted back to its old ways of being too timid, passive and consensus-driven to release breakthrough products quickly.”

I make him right. It gives me no pleasure to lay into Mozilla – Firefox was my default browser for the best part of the last decade, and Mozilla engineers are among the smartest and nicest people I’ve ever had the pleasure to interview. But Firefox has lost it.

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Palm Pre Plus review: first look

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

After all the hype over webOS and the Palm Pre last year, we were pretty disappointed when we finally got our hands on a device. It was poorly made, plasticky, the keyboard surround was sharp enough to cut cheese with, and the battery life was, quite simply, ropey. Well, now Palm has released the follow up – the Palm Pre Plus.

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DisplayMate boss attacks the TFT marketing myths

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

If you’re a regular reader of our monitor reviews, you’ll know we use an excellent suite of tests called DisplayMate. It covers colours, backlight levels, response times and any number of other tests for both digital and older analogue display types.

You’ll also know we have a real issue with many claims made by manufacturers. We generally find dynamic contrast (and its ludicrous headline-grabbing figures) detrimental to the movie-watching experience, and we’ve long stopped seeing any real motion blur on today’s panels. Quoted brightness figures don’t often appear to have any relation to the panels we test, and the pre-defined modes for movies, games and text usually make things worse.

It seems we’re not the only ones fed up of wading through hype and misdirection to gauge the actual quality of a monitor, though. (more…)

Apple iPad in depth: the magazine-reading experience

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

From the outset Apple has been pushing publishers towards the iPad. Steve Jobs himself took an iPad to the New York Times to show off what it could do. Clearly, Apple sees its new slate as the potential future of newspapers and magazines.

Since my iPad arrived I’ve been downloading and reading as many of the magazines and newspapers as I could find. It’s an incredibly compelling and eye-opening experience. There have been a few false dawns in the publishing industry with the CD-ROM and then the internet supposedly one step from killing off magazines and newspapers. The iPad might just succeed where they failed. (more…)

Adding video to your website with HTML5

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

In the first of his blogs for PC Pro, web developer Ian Devlin reveals how to embed video into your website with HTML5

Probably the biggest and most talked about feature of HTML5 is embedded video. Currently, the only method of adding video content to your website is with a third-party plugin such as Flash, QuickTime or RealPlayer. With the dawn of HTML5 and the video element this will all change, with video support being handled by the web browser, doing away with the need for any third party support.

Several web browsers already offer support for HTML5. Here we’re going to reveal how you can embed plugin-free video into your site and the issues you’ll face.

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Spotify for £5 tempts me at last… what about you?

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

I’ve been a whisker away from signing up to Spotify Premium in the past, with the promise of all-you-can-eat music enough to lure me to the Spotify home page – but never quite enough to persuade me to part with £10 per month.

But this morning’s announcement – a cut-down version for £4.99 per month that brings music to your PC but not to your phone – has finally brought my dust-ridden credit card out of retirement.

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Cisco and Compellent in bullish mood… so is the downturn over?

Friday, May 14th, 2010

I’ve just returned from a trip to the US to find a coalition Government in power for the first time in my lifetime, with Nick Clegg and David Cameron exchanging jokes, patting one another on the back and generally expressing bullish optimism for the future.

There must be something in the air, because there was much the same feeling of bullish optimism in two of the conferences I attended stateside, both of which were organised by US vendors for their international partners.

And in both, the vendors were attempting to convey an upbeat, “go-get-‘em” approach to their respective sales channels.

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Adobe’s plans to rule the mobile world

Friday, May 14th, 2010

Around a year ago, I looked into developing Android applications as a possible outlet for my creative genius. I soon discovered that Android apps are based on Java and my enthusiasm evaporated: I have no desire, or the time, to lose myself in the serpentine bowels of that venerable development system. So I gave up on the idea.

However, Adobe’s plans for world domination are now focused squarely on the smartphone market and, with Android now outstripping the iPhone in the US, perhaps Apple’s allergy to the Flash Player is not going to be such a problem after all.

There are two components that need to be in place: a method of developing applications and a way of delivering them. On PCs, you might develop applications using Flash Professional or Flash Builder (aka Flex) and they would then run within either a browser via Flash Player or on the desktop via the Adobe Air packager. What’s needed is the equivalent of these for the mobile platforms.

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Apple iPad: the world’s biggest satnav

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

I had lunch with satnav software makers CoPilot the other day – and no, it wasn’t in a roadside café. One of the more surprising revelations was that the company had just begun offering an iPad version of its software in the US; the most surprising revelation was that it was selling like hot cakes.

Using the 9.7in iPad screen as a satnav struck me as potentially reckless. With that A4-sized device mounted on your windscreen, you’re going to be blocking out a sizeable chunk of your field of vision. It’s more than double the size of TomTom’s biggest device, the Go 950.

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HP Envy 14 and 17: first look review

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

Since the US launch last week we’ve been itching to get up close and personal with HP’s latest Envys. And in the refined confines of London’s Covent Garden Hotel, we finally got our wish: HP revealed the Envy 14 and Envy 17.

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