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INTEREST: Microsoft Office 2011
by billing 29 Oct '10

29 Oct '10

The newest version of Microsoft Office for OS X (called Office 2011) is shipping now. It sports many of the features of Office 2010 for Windows such as the "ribbon" and this is the first release that has a Macintosh version of OUTLOOK rather than the previous ENTOURAGE. Included in the Microsoft Office 2011 package are: - Word 2011 - Excel 2011 - Powerpoint 2011 - Outlook 2011 - Communicator 2011 - Messenger 8 UofM bookstore availability has been delayed a bit (as is usual for new Microsoft products) while media is readied for the education market. In the meantime, here's some information (FAQs, tutorials, "what's new?" videos, etc.) showing some of what the new Microsoft Office is for Macintosh is all about: - http://www.microsoft.com/mactopia - http://www.officeformachelp.com/outlook/faqs/ - http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/10/office-2011-for-mac-arrives-with-… - http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2369733,00.asp

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INTEREST: IE9 beta not enough to keep IE market share over 60% mark
by billing 26 Oct '10

26 Oct '10

...from: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/10/ie9-beta-not-enough-to-keep-i… IE9 beta not enough to keep IE market share over 60% mark By Emil Protalinski | Last updated a day ago Data source: Net Applications 2010 will be remembered as the year when Chrome took off despite Microsoft's attempts to hold on to its shrinking browser market share. It looks like Internet Explorer's two months of market share gains were an aberration. Other trends are continuing as before: Firefox is steady between 20 and 25 percent share, Chrome is steadily moving forward, and Safari trudges onward. Opera, meanwhile, is still hanging on to the leftover scraps. Everyone but Microsoft saw at least a modest market share gain in September. Between August and September, Internet Explorer dropped 0.75 percent, a drop bigger than the last three months. Firefox, meanwhile, went up a mere 0.03 percent. Chrome gained 0.46 percent, making it the biggest winner this month. Safari was up 0.11 percent and Opera grabbed another 0.02 percent. IE has managed to fall back below the 60 percent mark. At 59.65 percent, this is the lowest point for the Microsoft browser. This drop comes despite the overwhelming monthly gains of IE8 and the release of theInternet Explorer 9 beta right in the middle of September. Microsoft told Ars that the beta has been downloaded 6 million times in the last two weeks. Nevertheless, this translates to a mere 0.25 percent of the whole market for those two weeks, and when looking at the whole month of August, it's only 0.10 percent. We might see more progress in October. Unfortunately for Web developers everywhere, IE6 (15.55 percent) continues to be more popular than IE7 (10.39 percent), though this month its share declined more than its successor. IE6's share can be attributed to businesses still using customized intranet applications, and XP's much bigger installed base compared to Vista's (especially in developing countries). We expect that IE7 will drop below the 10 percent mark next month, while IE6 may finally fall under 15 percent. Data source: Net Applications If we take a look at the last 12 months, the stabilization of IE's share is quite obvious. Firefox seems to be in the same boat: it remains far away from what may be the unreachable 25 percent mark, having lost all the share it gained in the last year. Its market share is actually lower than it was a year ago. Chrome's progress is very noticeable in the chart above. It seemed to have found resistance at the 7 percent mark, but it almost broke through to 8 percent in September. Safari's gains are just short of 1 percentage point, while Opera's are almost insignificant. Data source: Ars Technica As always, things at Ars are very different. There was no place-changing this time: Firefox continues to dominate, Chrome is second, Safari is third, IE is fourth, and Opera brings up the rear. Last month, Firefox lost share, as did Opera. Meanwhile, Chrome, Safari, and IE all gained. Further reading Browser Market Share (marketshare.hitslink.com) Browser Version Market Share (marketshare.hitslink.com)

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INTEREST: It's the time of year when a young lawyer's....
by billing 08 Oct '10

08 Oct '10

.....fancy turns to lawsuits..... ...from: http://www.engadget.com/tag/lawsuit,patent Motorola suing Apple for patent infringement by Paul Miller Oct 6th 2010 at 4:03PM 455 Comments Google responds to Oracle's Android patent lawsuit, we break it down by Nilay Patel Oct 5th 2010 at 4:33PM 423 Comments Apple loses, challenges patent verdict surrounding Cover Flow and Time Machine by Darren Murph Oct 4th 2010 at 2:14PM 247 Comments Microsoft files ITC complaint against Motorola over alleged Android-related patent infringement by Chris Ziegler Oct 1st 2010 at 2:44PM 446 Comments Apple sues HyperMac battery maker for using patented MagSafe and iPod connectors without approval by Nilay Patel Sep 22nd 2010 at 12:48AM 302 Comments Skyhook sues Google for business interference and patent infringement by Thomas Ricker Sep 16th 2010 at 4:31AM 149 Comments Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen sues Apple, Google, Facebook, AOL, eBay, Netflix, Yahoo!, Staples, OfficeMax, Office Depot, and YouTube over patents by Laura June Aug 27th 2010 at 2:42PM 497 Comments Google calls Oracle Android lawsuit 'baseless,' says Java goes 'beyond any one corporation' by Nilay Patel Aug 13th 2010 at 4:21PM 208 Comments Oracle sues Google over Java patent infringement in Android by Nilay Patel Aug 12th 2010 at 9:38PM 239 Comments NTP awakes, sues Apple, Microsoft, Google, HTC, LG, and Motorola over wireless email patents by Nilay Patel Jul 9th 2010 at 9:53AM 104 Comments Warner Bros. head spin: lawsuit claims studio pirated anti-piracy patent by Ross Miller May 27th 2010 at 12:58AM 44 Comments HTC's complaint against Apple examined by Nilay Patel May 12th 2010 at 6:09PM 159 Comments HTC files patent complaint against Apple, asks for ban on iPhone, iPad, and iPod by Nilay Patel May 12th 2010 at 1:58PM 277 Comments Nokia sues Apple again, says the iPad 3G infringes five patents by Nilay Patel May 7th 2010 at 11:18AM 307 Comments Nintendo escapes patent troll in appeals court -- thanks to Sony by Sean Hollister Apr 14th 2010 at 3:13AM 64 Comments Microsoft facing patent lawsuit over Zune Buy From FM feature by Nilay Patel Mar 29th 2010 at 2:47PM 76 Comments HTC responds to Apple's patent lawsuit, will 'fully defend itself' by Nilay Patel Mar 18th 2010 at 12:01AM 171 Comments

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INTEREST: Left Hand ignores Right Hand
by billing 04 Oct '10

04 Oct '10

...from: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/10/strange-bedfellows-eff-apac… Strange bedfellows: EFF, Apache back Microsoft in patent dispute By Ryan Paul | Last updated a day ago Although building consensus position on patent reform proposals has proved difficult, practically every major stakeholder (except patent attorneys, of course) agrees that the US patent system is broken. As a result, patent problems occasionally generate unexpected alliances between disparate groups at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. In the latest example, a number of organizations, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Apache Software Foundation, have filed an amicus brief that expresses support for Microsoft's pursuit of revised patent rules. Microsoft is currently mired in a high-profile patent dispute with i4i, a company that develops collaborative document editing software. The XML editing capabilities in Microsoft's popular office suite are said to infringe related patents that are held by i4i. The courts have consistently sided with i4i, awarding the company $290 million in damages and threatening Microsoft with an injunction. An appeals court upheld the judgement and the US Patent Office (USPTO) has declined to invalidate the patent. Microsoft is attempting to take the matter to the Supreme Court with the aim of arguing for a change in the rules that govern the process of invalidating patents. Present case law sets a high standard for parties that seek to get a patent thrown out, requiring them to provide "clear and convincing" evidence that the patent is invalid. Microsoft wants the Supreme Court to lower the standard so that only a "preponderance" of evidence is necessary. Such a change would make it easier to invalidate patents on the basis of prior art and other factors. The EFF and the Apache Software Foundation support Microsoft's argument in favor of lowering the standard because they believe that the current standard is excessive and unfairly disadvantages open source software projects that don't have the resources to fight back against costly patent litigation. Adopting the "preponderance" standard would make patent invalidation consistent with other similar facets of civil law. "FOSS projects often depend on the collective knowledge of their members and the documentation of the projects as prior art, to the extent that such documents exist," the brief says. "Much of this collective knowledge, however, arguably could not be considered as evidence under the Federal Circuit's current standard requiring alleged infringers to provide invalidity by 'clear and convincing' evidence... Thus, holders of patents that are unnecessarily virtually indestructible because of the inflated standard for proving invalidity pose a particular threat to FOSS." In addition to discussing this specific issue and its implications, the brief attempts to show how a pattern of poor Federal Circuit rulings have distorted the patent system, including one instance where the Federal Circuit was later rebuked by the Supreme Court for "fundamental misunderstandings" of patent law when a long-standing precedent related to the obviousness standard was thrown out. The brief contends that the standard set by the Federal Circuit for invalidating patents is similarly flawed and must be corrected. They believe that the Supreme Court should agree to hear Microsoft's case so that they can address the problem. "In this case, the Federal Circuit has incorrectly interpreted a clear statute. This Court should grant certiorari to correct the Federal Circuit's misreading of [section 282 of the Patent Act]," the brief concludes. Due to Microsoft's history of making threatening patent statements towards the Linux platform, there are likely some people in the open source software community who would like to see Microsoft get a black eye from i4i. Despite the past friction, the specific patent issue raised by i4i's lawsuit against Microsoft transcends that kind of partisanship and demands unified support. If the Supreme Court agrees to hear Microsoft's case and sides with the software giant, it would be benefit the entire open source software community. ...and yet, in the same moment..... ...from: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/10/microsoft-sues-motorola-citin… Microsoft sues Motorola, citing Android patent infringement By Emil Protalinski | Last updated a day ago Microsoft has announced a lawsuit against Motorola, alleging that several of the mobile company's Android devices infringe on nine of its patents. The software giant is suing in US District Court in Washington, and is also bringing a complaint before the International Trade Commission (ITC). The patents are all related to key smartphone experiences that include syncing e-mails, calendars, and contacts, scheduling meetings, and notifying applications about changes in signal strength and battery power. Microsoft specifically names two Motorola devices, the Droid 2 and the Charm, but says these are just examples and not a comprehensive list. The suit comes just as Microsoft readies the release of its Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system, the successor to Windows Mobile. Motorola was once a big backer of Windows Mobile, but in recent years it hasshifted to Google's Android. Although manufacturers can use Android for free, Microsoft argues that phone makers should consider the potential patent infringement issues and the related costs of the mobile OS. The nine patents in question in the ITC complaint include: 5,579,517: Common name space for long and short filenames 5,758,352: Common name space for long and short filenames 6,621,746: Monitoring entropic conditions of a flash memory device as an indicator for invoking erasure operations 6,826,762: Radio interface layer in a cell phone with a set of APIs having a hardware-independent proxy layer and a hardware-specific driver layer 6,909,910: Method and system for managing changes to a contact database 7,644,376: Flexible architecture for notifying applications of state changes 5,664,133: Context sensitive menu system/menu behavior 6,578,054: Method and system for supporting off-line mode of operation and synchronization using resource state information 6,370,566: Generating meeting requests and group scheduling from a mobile device "We have a responsibility to our customers, partners, and shareholders to safeguard the billions of dollars we invest each year in bringing innovative software products and services to market," Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing, said in a statement. "Our action today merely seeks to ensure respect for our intellectual property rights infringed by Android devices; and judging by the recent actions by Apple and Oracle, we are not alone in this respect," he added in a Microsoft on the Issues blog post. Apple earlier this year claimed that HTC's Android (and Windows Mobile) handsets violate a number of its patents. To avoid a similar fight with Redmond, HTC paid Microsoft for patent licenses. Regardless of the outcome of the HTC vs. Apple battle-turned-war, Android incurred costs for HTC, in spite of its free licensing. It's next to impossible to build a mobile device nowadays without extensive licensing agreements. Microsoft provides companies using Windows Mobile and Windows Phone operating systems with patent protections, while Google simply provides moral support. When Microsoft made the "Android isn't free" allegations, it was widely assumed that the software giant was referring to HTC's legal problems. With today's attack on Motorola, it's clear that Microsoft had more than just HTC on its mind.

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INTEREST: VigiVU: Vanderbilt University developed app to allow doctors to monitor their patients
by billing 20 Sep '10

20 Sep '10

...from: http://machealthcare.org/articles/1/6/vigivu-iphone-app-brings-patients-to-… VigiVU iPhone App Brings Patients to Doctors Posted by Jack Frost August 17th - 636 views - Filed in Technology Created by physicians for physicians, a mobile device application in use at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville allows doctors to continuously monitor their patients, even if their patients are several rooms away. VigiVU, created for the iPhone by the VUMC Department of Anesthesiology, allows anesthesiologists and other clinicians to watch over up to four patients immediately before, during and after surgery – greatly increasing what is called “situational awareness.” VigiVU notifies caregivers of out-of-range vital signs and medication administration and changes in admission, discharge and transfer status. It allows graphical vital sign review, promotes rapid communication with other providers, and provides a direct view into operating rooms during surgeries through a live, high-quality video feed, all from the convenience of the physicians’ cell phones. The VigiVU application also functions on the iPod Touch and iPad, with the iPad providing users a larger, yet still mobile, information source. [...]

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INTEREST: Morgan Stanley: Internet Trends
by billing 15 Sep '10

15 Sep '10

On April 12, 2010, Morgan Stanley did a presentation giving an overview of what they thought coming Internet trends would be. Their presentation slides can be seen at: http://www.morganstanley.com/institutional/techresearch/pdfs/Internet_Trend… ...but here's some of interest: - 5 countries account for 48% of all Internet users: - Morgan Stanley predicts that, given growth trends, within 5 years, the total number of mobile internet users (smartphones, iPod Touch, iPad, etc..) will surpass the total number of desktop Internet users (although these numbers are not mutually exclusive) - while both the number of email users and social networking users are growing very rapidly, there are now more social networking users and they spend waaaaaaaaaaaaay more time social networking than email users spend emailing: - the adoption of the "mobile Internet" (again "smartphone", iPod Touch, iPad accesses to the Internet) far outstrips the adoption of other internet phenomena as defined by: AOL, Netscape browser, Japan's NTT DoCoMo internet service "i-mode" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-mode). Also, Apple's iPhone/iPod Touch is leading the way in the "mobile Internet" market. This sees the iPhone/iPod Touch growth, in 11 months, to be about 11x what AOL saw in the same period; almost 5x the adoption of "Netscape"/browser use; and about two and a half times the growth of Japan's successful "i-mode" phone-based Internet services. Morgan Stanley concludes that this rapid adoption is due to 5 converging trends: "Mobile Ramping Faster than Desktop Internet Did and Will Be Bigger Than Most Think – 5 Trends Converging (3G + Social Networking + Video + VoIP + Impressive Mobile Devices)". - Facebook and Youtube have been the biggest gainers in terms of getting "internet eyeballs" over the past 3 years. MSN and Yahoo saw the largest declines: - Facebook is the most downloaded free app for the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch:

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INTEREST: your Mercedes-Benz and your iPhone...
by billing 02 Sep '10

02 Sep '10

...from: http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/02/mercedes-benz-updates-mbrace-app-with-fa… Mercedes-Benz updates mbrace app with fancy pants 'Concierge' service By Thomas Ricker posted Sep 2nd 2010 at 8:00AM Mercedes-Benz just announced a new app that connects its in-car navigation systems with its customers' iPhones. Mbrace version 2.0 still lets drivers unlock their vehicles and, more importantly, find it in a crowded parking lot while adding location-based personal assistance ranging from entertainment, restaurant, directions, and traffic updates via Mercedes-Benz's Concierge service -- assuming you're are an mbrace PLUS customer. Destination information is then fired off directly to your in-vehicle navigation system to get you there. The updated app also includes enhanced Roadside Assistance that transmits the driver's location whenever a call is initiated. Think OnStar with a posh European accent.

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INTEREST: How the iPad changed my reading habits
by billing 16 Aug '10

16 Aug '10

...from: http://www.macworld.com/article/153299/2010/08/ipad_reading.html?lsrc=nl_mw… How the iPad changed my reading habits One editor reflects on how the device has changed how he peruses magazines and books by Jonathan Seff, Macworld.com The iPad is a curious device—not quite an iPod, not quite a laptop. I typically bring it to work with me during the day, and keep it on my nightstand at home at other times. And although I use it for many different purposes—checking e-mail, ordering from Amazon, catching up on Twitter, controlling one of the Macs in the other room—what I’ve really noticed is how the iPad has changed how and what I read. Magazines I typically have magazines strewn about the house in various states of being read—especially The New Yorker, which comes 47 times a year—with bind-in cards or random scraps of paper used as bookmarks. And when I’m done with them, they often wait their turn to be tossed in with the recycling. Zinio has been around for a while now, providing digital subscriptions to magazines that you can read on a Mac, PC, or iPhone/iPod touch. I never really found it very enjoyable to read a magazine on my computer or the small screen of my iPhone. But with the iPad and a universal version of the app, it’s a whole different story. (Disclosure: the digital version of Macworld is a Zinio publication as well.) Rolling Stone in Zinio With the Zinio app on an iPad, I have a large screen on which to enjoy digital replicas of magazines. Unlike with printed magazines, however, I can pinch out to zoom into section to make it easier to read. The app keeps my place without the need for paper bookmarks. There are hyperlinks that take me directly to the jumped portion of an article without making me flip to the back to pages that often have no page numbers on them. I can read in bed without a light after my wife goes to sleep. I can download new issues as soon as they’re available and carry around as many magazines as my iPad can hold. And there’s nothing to recycle. Thanks to Zinio, I’ve re-subscribed to Rolling Stone—a magazine I haven’t read for years. When my current print subscription to Outside Magazine is up after one more issue, I plan to switch to the Zinio version. And I look forward to Conde Nast bringing The New Yorker to the iPad (although I recently renewed my print subscription for another three years). To be fair, the Zinio app and experience are far from perfect. Subscription pricing is all over the map and seems to change on a whim—I checked the Outside Zinio page three times over the course of several weeks, and a one-year subscription went from $16 to $20 before finally settling to $24 in that time. Also, there are no multi-year subscription options. Although Outside currently offers me one year of print for $30, I can opt for two years for $40 or three years for $50, dropping the price per issue if I’ll commit for longer. With Zinio, that’s not an option. I don’t mind paying the same price for Zinio as for a printed magazine, but it shouldn’t cost more. Also, as with other types of digital publications, I can’t hand an issue off to a friend or family member when I’m done with. And there’s no way to loan or share these types of purchases with other Zinio members. Books Before the iPad, I had never read an entire book on a portable device. I’d read bits and pieces using the Kindle app on my iPhone (including a 25 cent version of Alice in Wonderland) but I don’t own Kindle hardware. Hitch-22 in iBook I tested out the iBookstore by purchasing Samantha Bee’s I Know I Am, But What Are You?. After adjusting the font, type size, and brightness to my liking (and turning on the Sepia background option) I enjoyed breezing through the book, without worrying about remembering my place. The iPad is heavier than other e-book-only devices, but I haven’t found it oppressively so. A nice thing about the iPad (or Kindle or Nook or other e-reader) is the ability to download and carry multiple books with you for a vacation, say, rather than schlep around lots of heavy tomes. Or buy a new book from your hotel room without having to care about finding the nearest bookstore (and worry about its selection). Having finished that first book, I’ve now moved on to Christopher Hitchens’ Hitch-22: A Memoir. Comic books I must admit that I haven’t read a comic book since I was a teenager (although I still have a few boxes of nicely preserved issues in the basement). Or at least I hadn’t until I started playing around with the Marvel app on the iPad. Ultimate Spider-Man in the Marvel app Thanks to Marvel’s selection of free comic book issues (which change on a regular basis) I’ve given the iPad a opportunity to show me what it can do with another type of reading material. (This “the first taste is free” mentality seems to be an important marketing tool for the shifting comic book business, as our editor in chief, Jason Snell, discovered at Comic-Con recently.) Although I’ve yet to plunk down my credit card to buy any comics, I’ve found the reading experience to be mostly a nice one. Text can be a little small and hard to read without zooming in—especially on double pages displayed while reading in portrait orientation. It’s not quite the same tactile experience as I remember from my comic-reading days, and digital distribution means an end to collecting in the classic sense. But in general, the graphics look great and are very colorful, and it’s nice to have yet another reading option on the iPad.

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INTEREST: Safari extensions
by billing 16 Aug '10

16 Aug '10

...from: http://www.macworld.com/article/152101/2010/08/safariextensionshandson.html… Hands on with Safari extensions Posted on Aug 10, 2010 8:00 am by Dan Frakes, Macworld.com The latest version of Safari (5.x), released earlier this summer, introduced a new extensions feature to Apple’s Web browser. Extensions allow you to alter the behavior of Safari through small, downloadable packages from by developers, created by using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Activating the extensions feature Now that we’ve logged a few months of browsing with Safari 5, it’s time for a closer look at this feature: how to turn it on (if it isn't already), how to install and use extensions, how to update extensions, and how to troubleshoot issues with misbehaving extensions. Once you've gotten a handle on Safari extensions, take a look at some of our favorite extensions. Starting with Safari 5.0.1, the Safari-extensions feature is enabled by default. Launch Safari 5.0.1, and extensions just work—you can skip to the next section to learn how to download and install them. If, for whatever reason, you're still using Safari 5.0 and can't update yet, turning on the feature isn’t as obvious as you’d think. In fact, Apple has hidden the feature in Safari’s Develop menu…which is alsodisabled by default. So the process for turning on extensions requires a couple steps: In Safari’s Preferences window (Safari -> Preferences), switch to the Advanced pane, and then check the box to Show Develop Menu In Menu Bar. In the new Develop menu that appears in the menu bar (between Bookmarks and Window), choose Enable Extensions. Once you’ve used the Enable Extensions command, you can uncheck the Show Develop Menu In Menu Bar setting to regain that valuable menu-bar space. Installing extensions With the extensions feature activated, Safari’s Preferences window sports a new Extensions pane that lists all installed extensions and lets you customize the behavior of each. This screen also lets you disable and enable individual extensions or turn off the extensions feature altogether—useful when troubleshooting (more on that below). So how do you get extensions? With the release of Safari 5.0.1, Apple introduced the Safari Extensions Gallery, a curated collection of third-party extensions Apple has chosen to showcase—you can even access the Gallery right from the Safari menu. Divided into categories such as News, Social Networking, Security, and Productivity, the Gallery currently contains more than 100 extensions, each with a short description, a link to the developer's site, and an Install Now button. (If you haven't updated to Safari 5.0.1, you won't see these Install Now buttons.) Click the Install Now button for an extension, and in a second or two the button will change to an Installed graphic indicating that the extension has been installed. But there are plenty more Safari extensions out there that don't appear in the official Gallery. Some you'll find while browsing the Web, but perhaps the best alternative source for extensions right now is the Safari Extensions blog, which has been publishing info about newly available extensions since Safari 5.0 was released. I recommend subscribing to the blog's RSS feed so you can keep an eye out for useful new extensions as they're released. However, extensions you download outside of the official Gallery require a different installation procedure—they don't install automatically. The Website hosting the extension will provide a standard download link, and then Safari will download the extension—a file (actually a Mac OS X package) ending in .safariextz. (If, instead of downloading a .safariextz file, Safari displays a window of ugly code, click the Back button and either Option-click the download link or right-click—or Control-click—on the link and choose Download Linked File.) Depending on how you’ve configured Safari to handle downloaded files, Safari may immediately ask you if you want to install the new extension. If not, find the newly downloaded file package in the Finder and double-click it to view the same Don’t Install/Install dialog. Read the official warning text, click Install, and the extension is installed. (In case you're wondering why a third-party extension isn't included in Apple's Gallery, there are a couple possible reasons. The first is simply that the developer hasn't submitted it to Apple for possible inclusion. The second is that the developer has submitted the extension and either Apple hasn't yet approved it or has rejected it for some reason. This doesn't mean you shouldn't install extensions that don't appear in Apple's Gallery, but you should be a bit more careful before doing so.) Safari's Preferences window sports a new view when extensions are turned on. Whichever method you use to install extensions—Apple's Gallery or manual download and install—installed extensions are stored in ~/Library/Safari/Extensions and appear in the new Extensions screen of Safari's preferences window. For some extensions, the new features they provide are immediately available—no restart or other action is required. In fact, if the extension uses a toolbar button, that button may automatically be added to Safari’s toolbar without any further action from you. (If it isn’t, just choose View -> Customize Toolbar and then manually add the toolbar button.) However, I've found that most extensions work only on new tabs you open after installing the extension—you won't get the new features on existing tabs. (This is often the case even if the extension has automatically added a toolbar button to Safari—the button won't do anything when viewing existing tabs.) Using and managing extensions As mentioned above, many Safari extensions function as new buttons for Safari’s toolbar. For example, Ars Technica and Macworld contributor John Siracusa’s Reload Button restores the Reload button found in Safari 3 and earlier, and Clint Ecker’s Short URL adds a new button that automatically shortens, using either is.gd or bit.ly, the current tab’s URL. You use these toolbar buttons just like any other: click the button to access the simple feature. Other extensions add new commands to Safari’s contextual menus: right-click somewhere on a Web page, and you’ll see the new options. For example, Shortenz Linkz lets you right-click on any URL link on a Web page to generate a shortened URL using the URL-shortening service of your choice. It also provides an option to send the URL in a Twitter message. But many Safari extensions work in the background, doing their thing without any effort on your part. For example, there are already extensions that automatically reformat YouTube pages or Google Reader’s interface for easier viewing, that add additional options to specific Web pages, or that disable JavaScript elements hosted by particular servers. If an extension provides settings to customize its behavior, you’ll find those settings in the Extensions pane of Safari’s Preferences window. Select the extension in the list on the left, and that extension’s options appear to the right. If you decide you don't like a particular extension's feature(s), you can disable it. Just select it in the list of installed extensions and then uncheck the Enable [extension name] box. Alternatively, you can uninstall it, as explained below. Updating extensions Like other software, Safari extensions are updated to fix bugs and add new features. This is especially true right now, as developers are still learning how to create and perfect extensions. Thankfully, Safari provides a built-in mechanism for checking for, and updating to, new versions of extensions. Open the Extensions pane of Safari Preferences, and click the Updates item in the lower-left corner. To the right, you’ll see a list of any extensions for which newer versions are available. Click an individual Update button to update that extension—the new version is downloaded and installed. Alternatively, click Update All to install all pending updates with a single click. To avoid having to manually check for available updates, you can check the box to Install Updates Automatically. This configures Safari to automatically download and install updates whenever they’re available. Given how frequently extensions are being updated these days, this is a welcome option, although it’s not yet clear how often Safari checks for new versions of installed extensions. Troubleshooting extensions Depending on which extensions you choose to install, the neat features you gain may come with a price: Safari crashes. Between the release of Safari 4 a year ago and the release of Safari 5 in June, I had very few problems with Safari; in the first couple weeks after installing Safari 5.0 and testing extensions, I had literally dozens of crashes, and I was able to trace nearly all of them back to issues with extensions. (Unfortunately, unlike the Safari 4-and-later feature that lets Safari plug-ins crash without taking down the entire browser, an extension problem often crashes Safari outright.) I've personally had the worst luck with extensions that aim to block specific JavaScript hosts that alter the behavior of sites. For example, several extensions block JavaScript from intellitxt.com in order to let you avoid those annoying ads that pop up on Web pages when you mouse over words. Unfortunately, whenever I’ve had one of these extensions installed and active, Safari would crash regularly. I also occasionally experience a problem where simply disabling a particular extension, by turning off that extension in the Extensions screen of Safari Preferences, crashes Safari. This seems to be especially common when disabling an extension that use a toolbar button. In many cases, I've been able to avoid such crashes by manually removing the extension’s toolbar button (using Safari's Customize Toolbar screen) and then disabling the extension. Thankfully, over the past couple months, I've found that Safari's stability has improved dramatically when using extensions. I suspect the biggest reason is that extensions developers have been improving their extension-coding skills, but it's also possible that Safari 5.0.1 included some extensions-handling improvements of its own. Whatever the combination, using extensions seems to be notably safer—in terms of browser stability—these days than when the feature first debuted. That being said, extensions can still cause problems with Safari, so it's good to know some basic troubleshooting procedures. If you know which extension is causing a problem, you’ve got two options: The first is to simply disable that extension (as explained above) and then wait for an update to see if a new version fixes the problem. The second is to remove the extension completely. To do this, select the extension in Safari Preferences and then click the Uninstall button that appears to the right. What if you don’t know which extension is causing a problem? Remember the “classic” Mac OS extension conflict? Welcome back, old friend. It’s time to do some conflict testing. The first step is to turn off Safari extensions completely: Open the Extensions screen of Safari Preferences and move the main slider to the Off position. Then browse the sites that were open the last time Safari crashed or exhibited otherwise troublesome behavior—Safari’s Reopen All Windows From Last Session command (in the History menu) is great for this. If the problem still occurs, you know extensions aren’t the cause. If the problem is gone, at least one of your extensions is to blame. Turn the main extensions slider back to On, then scroll through the list of installed extensions in Safari Preferences, noting which ones are currently enabled. Then disable one and reload your last session. If the problem occurs again, the extension you disabled is likely not the cause. Disable the next suspect and reload the last session again. Is the problem gone? You’ll want to repeat this process until disabling an extension fixes the problem—that extension is likely the cause. Of course, just as with classic Mac OS extension conflicts, it’s possible that a combination of Safari extensions is the real issue, but I haven't yet come across such an issue (and uncovering such combinations is the topic for another article…). Use it wisely As you browse Apple's Gallery and the Web for useful extensions, keep in mind that the more extensions you install, the more you increase the chance of problems. But just as important is that you increase the complexity of the browser itself—more toolbar buttons, more keyboard shortcuts, more contextual-menu commands, and more ways in which the content on Websites is tweaked or otherwise affected. So use extensions judiciously. Despite downloading and testing scores of extensions, I've kept only a couple dozen installed, and only a few of those are currently active. Nevertheless, Extensions has become one of my favorite new Safari features in years.

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INTEREST: UK government: Upgrading away from IE6 costs too much
by billing 06 Aug '10

06 Aug '10

...from: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/08/despite-petition-uk-governmen… UK government: Upgrading away from IE6 costs too much By Emil Protalinski | Last updated a day ago The UK government is not yet interested in ditching Internet Explorer 6, saying the costs required to do so outweigh the benefits. Six months ago, an online petition started in hopes that the UK would abolish all use of the world's most-loathed browser. The petition debuted soon after the German and French governments began to advise their citizens to use a different browser than IE in the wake of the Chinese-Google hack attack. It closed on June 6 after gathering 6,223 signatures; on July 30, the government gave an official response. Here's the crux of it: Complex software will always have vulnerabilities and motivated adversaries will always work to discover and take advantage of them. There is no evidence that upgrading away from the latest fully patched versions of Internet Explorer to other browsers will make users more secure. Regular software patching and updating will help defend against the latest threats. The Government continues to work with Microsoft and other internet browser suppliers to understand the security of the products used by HMG, including Internet Explorer and we welcome the work that Microsoft are continuing do on delivering security solutions which are deployed as quickly as possible to all Internet Explorer users. The UK government is correct in saying that Microsoft will continue to keep IE6 updated and secure. In fact, the software giant has promised to do so until April 2014, which is when Extended Support for Windows XP (which includes IE6) ends. That said, Microsoft trash talks IE6 every chance it gets, promoting the increased security of IE8 at the same time. Furthermore, as IE flaws are discovered, IE6 and IE7 are affected more often than not, while IE8 usually remains unaffected. The true reason the UK government doesn't want to upgrade becomes clear in the last paragraph of its explanation. It doesn't want to spend the money: It is not straightforward for HMG departments to upgrade IE versions on their systems. Upgrading these systems to IE8 can be a very large operation, taking weeks to test and roll out to all users. To test all the web applications currently used by HMG departments can take months at significant potential cost to the taxpayer. It is therefore more cost effective in many cases to continue to use IE6 and rely on other measures, such as firewalls and malware scanning software, to further protect public sector internet users. On some level, this makes sense; not every benefit is worth the costs. But such testing will have to be done eventually, and not even Her Majesty's Government can stick with IE6 indefinitely.

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