Web Browser Round Up

2009 Internet Browser Software Product Comparisons

Here's a great site that has reviews and ratings of the Top 10 Web Browsers for 2009 as you can see from the above preview Firefox #1, Google Chrome #2, MS Internet Explorer #3, Opera #4 & Safari #5.

Google Chrome

Google has released the final 1.0 version of Chrome for Windows with Linux & Mac versions to be released later this year. Each Tab in Google Chrome acts as an independent Browser, so if a page in the Tab crashes the Browser doesn't.

Apple Safari

Apple has released a Public Beta of Safari 4 for Mac & Windows, with 150 new features that improve the Web Browsing experience.

Both Google Chrome and Apple Safari used the WebKit rendering engine originally derived by Apple from the KHTML software library of Konqueror which is part of Linux and developed as open source.

Windows 7 Public Beta Released

Microsoft announced the release of a Public Beta of Windows 7 at the 2009 CES. The beta can be downloaded from Microsoft's official Windows 7 site, until January 24th. Windows 7 is available in 32 Bit (2.4Gb Download) and 64 Bit (3.2Gb Download) versions. The Beta period will end on August 1st, 2009.

Reports on the new operating system are positive. Windows 7 will come in three flavours Home, Enterprise (Pro) and a slimmed down Netbook version.

iWork '09

Apple has also updated it's iWork suite which includes iWork.com a method of sharing projects. Keynote | Pages | Numbers all have extra features including being able to work with Microsoft Office files.

iLife '09

Apple has updated it's iLife suite to iLife '09.  iPhoto | iMovie | GarageBand | iWeb | iDVD have all been updated. Apple has also posted a range of tutorials on each of the programs.

Apple 17" MacBook Pro

Apple 17" MacBook Pro was launched on Tuesday at MWSF 2009. It features a fixed battery with up to 8hrs of wireless use. Plus the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processor. The design has also been brought into line with the other MacBook Pro Laptops which were updated late last year.

Browser Trends

The latest data on Browser trends shows Firefox, Safari and Chrome rising in their market share, this of course, is at the expense of Explorer, which is now at  just over 68%.

MWSF 2009

MacWorld San Francisco 2009 kicks off from Monday Jan 5th - Friday 9th, with all eyes watching for 9 am Tuesday when the Apple Keynote speech occurs. Expect to see updates to the iMac & Mac Mini computers, along with iLife & iWork 09 software. Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" will also feature with a possible mid February release. Unfortunately this will be the last time Apple attend this expo.