Tech news from around the web:
Tech news from around the web:
Tech news from around the web:
Firefox 3.6 offers more awesomeness
Nice timing from the folks over at the Mozilla Foundation. As calls to ditch Microsoft’s Internet Explorer in the wake of the Chinese hack attack on Google reverberate around the internet, the open source project has released a new version of its Firefox web browser.
Mozilla wisely stopped short of making any special security claims about the new Firefox 3.6, but it does claim that the new browser is 20 per cent faster than its predecessor and includes “extensive under the hood work to improve performance for everyday web tasks such as email, uploading photos, social networking, and more.” Read more
techfile 1.07.09
Mozilla casts doubt on Microsoft’s browser gambit
You’d think that Microsoft’s rivals would welcome the company’s announcement that it will ship Windows 7 in Europe without an internet browser.
After 15 years (that’s how long ago it was that the US first forced Microsoft into a consent decree promising not to “tie” other products illegally to Windows) the software company has finally agreed to untie the browser completely, at least in Europe. It feels like a watershed.
So are the makers of Firefox, Opera and other browsers dancing in the streets? Not a bit of it. Read more
Flock 2.5 slipstreams social media surge
Flock, the social web browser that fell victim to Web 2.0 hype in 2005, appears to be finally taking flight four years later, with a new release that swoops on the surge in social media usage.
Flock 2.5, released today, amounts to the popular Firefox browser on social-media steroids. “This is our biggest release since the commercial deployment of 1.0 [in 2007],” Shawn Hardin, chief executive, told me during a demo of the product. Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
