browser Archive

Some stats on OS and browser share

Last week on Twitter I shared some browser and OS statistics from a site I manage. These turned out to be quite popular, so I’ve decided to expand on them a little further, and also add the stats from another site I manage, to broaden the base numbers a little. I’m not trying to make any point here, just sharing a little bit of analytics data. If there’s any interest in my doing so, I’ll provide further updates in the future; leave a comment if there’s anything in particular you’d like to know.

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Browser review: Kobo Touch

Inspired by Anna Debenham’s report on the Nintendo DSi browser, I thought I’d write a short review of the browser on my Kobo Touch eReader. The browser is hidden away under Settings > Extras, below a big bold note that says it’s not officially supported; but as it’s there, let’s review it.

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Opera widgets become browser-independent

This is a nice idea: Opera have separated their widgets from the desktop browser, allowing them to be run as standalone applications. They are cross-platform and standards compliant. You can download a Labs release to try it for yourself.


background-size implemented in Firefox 3.6

Firefox 3.6 has become the latest browser to support the CSS3 background-size property (although the first to do so according to the latest W3C spec.).

Using it is pretty simple:

div {
background-image: url('image.png');
-moz-background-size: 80%;
}

This, along with multiple background-images, is going to go a long way towards cleaning up mark-up and prettifying the web.


Checking for installed fonts with @font-face and local()

Firefox 3.5 was released earlier today, and joins Safari in supporting the @font-face rule with OpenType and TrueType font families, allowing you to use a wider range of fonts in your designs (as long as they are correctly licensed, of course).

One slight drawback of the technique is the blank space that’s displayed as the new font is loaded into the browser; this is especially unnecessary for users who already have that font natively on their system.

The way to get around that is quite simple; use local() to check if the font is on the user’s system first.

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Web workers of the world: Unite

To much fanfare (the blowing of their own trumpets), Opera today announced Unite, a new service which lets you use the browser as a personal file server and social space. I haven’t had more than a passing glance at it yet – my URL is home.stopsatgreen.operaunite.com, if you’d like to see if I’m available – but it certainly looks interesting. Useful? I’m not sure yet.


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Aside

I’ve updated my Speaking page to include more conferences, more videos, and a little on my speaking requirements and preferences. I’m planning to cut down on the number of talks I give in 2014 (twelve is too many), but am always open to interesting offers and opportunities, so please get in touch if you’re organising an event.

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