browsers

Read Cult of Mac’s latest posts on browsers:

DuckDuckGo is building its own privacy-protecting web browser for Mac

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DuckDuckGo coming to Mac
All its privacy features will be enabled by default.
Image: DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo, the search engine that prides itself on protecting your privacy, is building its very own web browser for Mac. It promises to be simple and fast, with robust privacy features enabled by default.

The browser will feature DuckDuckGo’s popular “Fire Button,” which quickly wipes all your private data in just one click. It also will be built to use native browser technologies, rather than relying on third-party engines.

Coast For iPad, Opera’s Underappreciated Browser, Gets A Major 2.0 Update

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On iOS as on the Mac, there’s only two browsers that most people take seriously: Safari and Chrome. But another browser you should consider is Coast, an iOS browser made by Opera that turns the worldwide web into a sea of apps.

It’s a great browser, one of the few that re-imagines surfing as if it were designed from the ground-up to happen on the iPad, with a primarily gesture driven interface and chrome that stays out of the way until you need it. And now, Coast is getting better, thanks to a beefy 2.0 update.

Mozilla: Firefox Not Coming To iOS Until Apple Stops Crippling Third-Party Browsers

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Browsers on iOS run with a major disadvantage to Mobile Safari. Not only are they obliged to use Apple’s built-in WebKit rendering engine, but they have to use a slower version of Apple’s speedy Nitro JavaScript engine. The result? If you use any third-party browser on your iPhone or iPad, it will run slower than Safari… at least without a jailbreak.

It’s unfair, but various companies have still made excellent browsers for iOS, including Google Chrome and Opera. Mozilla, though, will not follow these company’s lead, having said at this weekend’s SXSW conference in Austin that Firefox won’t be coming to iOS any time soon.

Opera Takes On Mobile Web Browsing With Ice For Android And iOS

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Lookin' good, Opera.

In an internal video released today by web browser company, Opera, the initial programmer of the new concept showed off a beta of the new Opera browser scheduled to go live for iOS and Android in February of this year.

The video, posted on Pocket Lint, shows a browser that looks to redefine the typical mobile browsing experience, with icons instead of tabs and gestures instead of buttons. The focus is on the user and using rich web applications, like Google Maps.

Scared Of Flashback? Here’s How To Disable Java On Your Mac And Stay Safe

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Kaspersky is helping Apple identify vulnerabilities in Mac OS X.
Got the Flashback spooks?

Apple has said that its working on a tool to end the notorious Flashback botnet once and for all, but there’s still the remotest chance you could get infected. Keep in mind that only around 600,000 Macs have fallen prey to Flashback, and that number is a tiny fraction of the millions of Mac users around the world. Most of the machines that have been infected already are centralized in North America.

Your Mac is completely up to date and you’ve already checked to see if you’re infected by the Flashback trojan. If everything is squared away and you’re not infected already, here’s how to ensure there is zero chance you’ll get infected while you wait for Apple to save the day.

IOS Completely Embarrasses Android In HTML5 Speed Tests

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Given the numbers, LG might be better sticking to physical displays of 3-D like this one at the Mobile World Congress last week. Photos Charlie Sorrel (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)
Given the numbers, LG might be better sticking to physical displays of 3-D like this one at the Mobile World Congress last week. Photos Charlie Sorrel (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)

IOS runs HTML5 games a crazy three times faster than Android, according to a study by Spaceport.io. The tests were run on various hardware and software combinations, both for Android and iOS, and the results are pretty startling. And there’s an even more amusing data point: The Blackberry Playbook beat every Android device.

Evernote’s New “Clearly” Chrome Extension Gives You A Clean Reading Experience

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Evernote has announced “Clearly,” a new browser extension that mimics other enhanced reading services, like Instapaper and Readability. Clearly is available for Google Chrome now, with support coming for other browser in the near future.

While Evernote already lets you save webpages, take notes, archive memories and more, Clearly has one simple, clear (pardon the pun) focus: distraction-free reading.

Firefox 8 For Mac Is Here, Get It Now

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If you’re still rocking the red panda as your default browser, great news. Following the new rapid release cycle that saw Firefox leap from version 4 to version 7 in just six months, Firefox has made another evolutionary leap today with the official release of Firefox 8.

Firefox 4.0 for Mac Might Gain Last Minute Hardware Acceleration

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When Mozilla finally releases Firefox 4.0 for OS X, Mac users might notice that browsing has gotten quite a bit snappier for them, as it now looks as if hardware acceleration may, at long last, be coming to Firefox for the Mac.

It’s far from certain, though. The next beta of Firefox 4.0, b7, is the last before feature freeze kicks in on the latest version of the popular alternative browser… and Mozilla’s OS X software engineers have just decided to try to sneak it in.

Adobe Releases 64-Bit Version of Flash for OS X

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Adobe’s just released a new version of their Flash Player for Mac into the wild. Called “Square,” the latest version enables native 64-bit support on OS X, which Adobe hopes will result in a substantial speed boost for users running modern Macs.

On our end, we haven’t seen much improvement, short of a marginal (and perhaps imaginary) performance boost under 64-bit Safari. It still seems to take up just as many system resources as before.

Are any of our readers experiencing varying mileage with Adobe Flash Square? Let us know in the comments: we keep on rooting for Adobe to prove Steve Jobs wrong, but it still remains a slow and unacceptable system hog.

Now Available On Software Update: Safari 5.0.2 and 4.1.2 (Tiger)

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If you fancy a computer reboot to start off your day in exchange for some better WebKit stability and security, Apple has just pushed a new Safari update down the pipeline, fixing a stable of bugs and freshly revealed security vulnerabilities, including:

• Fixes an issue that could prevent users from submitting web forms

• Fixes an issue that could cause web content to display incorrectly when viewing a Google Image result with Flash 10.1 installed

• Establishes an encrypted, authenticated connection to the Safari Extensions Gallery

The 39MB Safari 5.0.2 update is available through Software Update now, or directly from Apple… and if you’re still stuck on Tiger, Apple’s even gone the extra mile and snuck out a 4.1.2 update for you throwbacks.