You know, for the longest time, I’ve made do with Tracfones.  They’re dirt cheap–thirty bucks every three months–and for as little as I use them, I don’t need a phone with a whole lot of bells and whistles.  At least, that’s what I thought before the crew out at Puremobile sent me a Nokia N97 to take a look at, and I got a first hand look at how stone-axe primitive I was living in terms of cell phones.

The Nokia N97 cell phone is a small, smooth smartphone that comes with a panoply of options so wide and varied that it made my head spin the first time I tried it.  This sucker comes with a five megapixel camera, GPS capability, map software, web browsing, and a fully functional QWERTY keyboard hidden underneath the phone’s front panel.  It has an autorotate sensor that lets you go from landscape to portrait with a flick of the wrist, 32 gigs of onboard storage and 128 megs of RAM.

I actually once used a COMPUTER with less RAM than this phone carries. The sheer number of options contained within this phone, the sheer number of things it can do, boggles my mind, and it seems like with every passing day, I find more things that this Swiss Army knife of a phone can do.

I confess to a certain amount of amazement with this phone.  It replaces so many things with a device roughly the size of two credit cards taped together.  Considering that, as far as I can tell from Amazon, this sucker has a retail cost of seven hundred dollars, this is a great one to consider if you want a top of the line model.  More budget conscious folks may want to stick with the Tracfone.

Tags: 5 megapixel camera, browser, Cell Phones, GPS, maps, Nokia, Nokia, Nokia N97, options, smartphone, Uncategorized

Opera has released a new version of their popular browser for mobile phones, also known as Opera Mini which is now in version n.5, in beta mode. It’s one of the most popular mobile browsers due to its compatibility with a high number of different phones, which is a good detail.

Anyhow, the latest Opera Mini 5 browser has the following upgrades:

- password manager
- speed dial that “connects” with your bookmarks
- a better touchscreen interaction
- tabbed browsing so you can check 10 sites at once

Opera Mini 5 is most probably the best browser you can get for your cellphone. Download it now (don’t forget it is in beta) at the Opera site.

Tags: Beta, browser, mini 5, Mobile Software, Opera

It was recently announced that RIM, the guys behind the entire lineup of BlackBerrys, has recently acquired Torch Mobile, a mobile software developer.

Before you ask why should you care make note that RIM’s buyout of Torch Mobile means a WebKit-based mobile web browser for the BlackBerry platform. If you aren’t aware what WebKit is, it’s an open-source web browser layout engine that allows mobile browsers to render web pages as they would appear on a normal computer.

In other words, BlackBerry owners will get their hands on an awesome, yet official, web browser at some point in the future.

Read (Torch Mobile)

Tags: BlackBerry, browser, Business, Cell Phones, Mobile News, Mobile Software, Research In Motion, torch mobile, web browser, webkit

If recent reports are to be believed, RIM may be working towards bring their BlackBerry browser up to par with the competition. Said reports suggest that RIM will be implementing full Flash and Silverlight support for the BlackBerrry browser. Make note, that we said full Flash support and not Flash lite or anything similar.

Unfortunately, BGR says that the update probably won’t be available until next summer when RIM hopes to have their hands on higher data speends and more capable devices.

Tags: BlackBerry, browser, Cell Phones, flash, Mobile News, Mobile Software, Research In Motion, Silverlight

Mozilla is hard at work on Firefox 4.0 and have today taken the time to show us a mockup screen shot of the browser’s new interface.

Does the interface look familiar? It should as it bares an uncanny resemblance to that of Google’s Chrome. I’m not complaining as I’ve become quite the fan of Chrome’s interface but Mozilla seems a bit unsure.

Below is a list of positives and negatives of the new UI compiled by Mozilla:

Positives:
- Save Vertical Space
- Efficiency/Remove Visual Complexity – Right now the tabs have to be connected to something. So we are adding an extra visual element for them to connect to.
- Shorter Mouse Distance to Page Controls.
Negatives:
- Breaks Consistency/Familiarity – Moving things confuses existing users.
- Title is MIA – With the space removed from the titlebar you only get the truncated version in the tab.
- Longer Mouse Distance to Tabs – Takes longer to mouse to a tab.
- Lost Space – Sandwiched in between the application icon and the window widgets you lose some space.

So, readers, what are you opinions on Firefox’s new look? Good? Bad? Leave it in the comments.

via Mashable

Tags: 4.0, browser, Chrome, Firefox, Google, Google, internet, Mobile Software, mockup, Mozilla, software

Internet Explorer should never be your favorite choice for an Internet browser. Sorry Microsoft, but as long as there are better, faster, more dependable alternatives, IE will always lose. And it seems that even Microsoft is willing to confirm that there are better browsing choices as it’s not going to include IE in the future Windows 7.

Microsoft has miraculously found a way to take IE out of Windows 7 in order not to get a huge fine. The European Union told Microsoft to remove IE from Windows 7 or to include competitor’s browsers in Windows 7 and Microsoft agreed. In fact Microsoft will add browsers from the competition so we’re bound to see Opera, Mozilla and Google in Windows 7. What do you say folks? What browser will you choose?

Tags: browser, Google, internet explorer, microsoft, Mobile News, Mozilla, Opera, Windows 7

Google’s debut web browser, Chrome, exited its beta form back in December of last year and now the company is ready to release version 2.0 of the software.

Included above is an informational video released by Google detailing the changes featured in version 2.0. As you can see, the feature list isn’t exactly extensive with the video showcasing the ability to remove thumbnails, go into a new full screen mode and use the new auto correct feature.

Missing from the video is Google’s announcement that the new version will be 30% faster than the previous. Hey, a little speed never hurt no one, right?

Tags: browser, Chrome, Google, software, Update, version 2.0

While 2008 was not the best of years for the majorioty of the population, the same could not be said for Mozilla. According to information released by Net Applications, Mozilla’s Firefox now has a full 20.78 percent market share.

Just to put this in perspective, Internet Explorer, which has been out for ages, has a 70% market share, and Apple’s Safari has a mere 7% market share.

Good job Mozilla, now let’s top Microsoft!

Read (vnunet)

Tags: Apple, browser, Firefox, internet explorer, Mozilla, safari, software

In case you are using Mozilla at least as much as I am, you will be interested in the “Fashion Your Firefox”, which is a new web application which will let us customize our browser based on what we like to do while online. The add-ons inclued the “Shutterbug” which lets users view and share pictures and videos online, “Rock Star” for music listening online. “News Junkie” will get you news and weather and “Shopaholic will get you some of the best deals around. The “Digital Pack Rat” keeps tracks of your favorite sites, bookmarks and blogs while your “Social Butterfly” will let you take advantage of a few social networking and bookmarking sites. “Finder and Seeker” is a search tool which is said to find everything, although I would thing that’s what Google does. The “Decorator” brings you various browser themes while the “Executive Assistant” will help you organize your work.

I’m off trying the new add-ons. Tell me what you think of it.

via FashionYourFirefox

Tags: Add-Ons, browser, internet, Mobile News, Mozilla, software

Microsoft planned to release its IE8 browser amid the popularity of Firefox, now, they have another competition - Google! Google is trying to penetrate the browser market. Yeah, that’s right, Google is releasing its very own web browser. This is not a surprise as the rumor of a browser goes way back 2004. I guess now it becomes a reality.

Google is launching a beta version of its own Web browser on Tuesday in more than 100 countries, the company announced Monday in a blog posting. The open-sourced browser will be named Chrome and is supposed to be faster, better and simpler than existing browsers.

From PC World, here are Chrome’s main feature:

–It has a tab-centric interface, with a default home page that shows snapshots of your favorite sites and new memory management techniques designed to prevent tabs from bogging down your browsing;

–It uses sandboxing to prevent malware from doing damage to your PC;

–It includes built-in anti-phishing;

–It uses an all-new JavaScript implementation designed to provide snappy performance for Web-based applications;

–It includes Gears, the Google-initiated platform that helps online apps provide offline capabilities;

–It’s open source;

–It’s based on Webkit, the same open-source browser engine that powers Apple’s Safari.

Tags: browser, Chrome, Google, Mobile News, software

Guinness Book of Records should be registering Mozilla’s performance. 8.3 million people all over the world downloaded Mozilla Firefox 3.0 in 24 hours. At the time I am writing this post, almost 13 million downloads have been completed. I’ve done at least 3 and I am happy to report everything is running smoothly.
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Tags: browser, Mobile News, Mobile Software, Mozilla

Mozilla Firefox 3.0 is available for download as promised for today. How long were you actually waiting for it? Do you want to help them get into the Guinness Book of Records? It’s really easy to do it. All you have to do is download it on your computer(s) today. You were going to try it anyway right?

We’ve seen a couple of trial clients before this official release and we have a pretty good idea of what this browser will be able to do. Basically it’s faster and safer. And it has a new face. Some people say Safari is way better but I tend to choose Firefox over Safari for now.

In a nutshell, here’s what the guys over at Mozilla say about how Firefox 3.0 was improved:

• Much faster load times
• Fixed memory leak problem in Firefox 2
• An “Awesome Bar” (aka smart location bar) that suggests sites you’ve visited before or bookmarked when you type a URL into the address bar.
• Better security against phishing and malware
• One-click bookmarking
• Offline capabilities
• Built-in spell-check and session restore capabilities (like Firefox 2)
• Cool zoom-in feature
• Looks better on a Mac

Why are you reading these lines instead of downloading it already?

via Mozilla

Tags: browser, Firefox, Mobile News, Mobile Software, Mozilla, Off The Topic, safari browser, Uncategorized

Mozilla Firefox 3.0 will be finally available for download on June 17th after no less than 34 months of development. I have tried the betas so far but I wasn’t all that happy and I am hoping for a better experience once I get the final version.
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Tags: browser, Mobile browser, Mobile News, Mobile Software, Mozilla, Uncategorized

I know some of you have been waiting for a long time for the final version of the Opera 9.5 browser for your PC or Mac and also for your mobile phone or PDA.
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Tags: browser, Mobile browser, Mobile News, Mobile Software, Opera

iPhoneBrowser might just be that piece of software you were looking for at least a year. If you want to better manage your iPhone’s file system and if you are a Windows iPhone user you should definitely give it a try.
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Tags: 3g iphone, Apple, Apple iPhone, browser, Mobile browser, Mobile News

At the DEMO 08 conference, Skyfire has unveiled a mobile browser to end all mobile browsers. The Skyfire mobile web browser has the ability to view as they’re seen on computers and at the speed you’re used to. Skyfire features Ajax and Flash, ensuring optimal web browsing on your phone. Skyfire has opened its beta version to US mobile phone users for both touch screen and non touch screen Windows Mobile phones. A web browser for Symbian is in the works while versions for other OS and other locations will be announced in the future. You can sign up for beta testing in the Skyfire web site.

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Tags: browser, mobile, Mobile News