Yesterday, Apple released the public beta version of Safari 4 for both Mac OS X and Windows platforms. According to Apple, Safari 4 is faster and “more innovative” than Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and other competing browsers.

Safari 4 runs on a new Javascript engine called Nitro which Apple claims to be 30 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and more than 3 times faster than Firefox 3. Apple also claims that Safari 4 has a page load time 3 times faster than IE7 and Firefox 3 although performance may vary according to the system configuration and other factors.

I don’t really use Safari that much, only for testing purposes but I went and downloaded/installed Safari 4 just to check it out and see the new features.

Top Sites

The first thing you’ll notice is Top Sites, which is a visual menu that displays graphic previews of frequently visited web sites. For first time users, Top Sites will be made up of preselected popular web sites like Yahoo!, CNN. YouTube, New York Times, etc. and as you go and use it, these slots will be replaced with the web sites that you frequently visit.

Top Sites Edit Mode

Top Sites is customizable. Clicking on the EDIT button (found at the lower left corner) lets the user remove or rearrange the sites (drag-and-drop style) according to their preference. By default, Top Sites is displayed on medium sized thumbnails and in EDIT mode, you can change the size to small, medium or large.

Top Sites Small Thumbnails

Top Sites Large Thumbnails

Cover Flow

Cover Flow is one of the new features in Safari 4. I’m sure most of you are familiar with it and have seen it in other Apple Products like the iPod, iPhone and iTunes. In Safari, this feature lets you browse through the different web sites listed in the Bookmarks or History of web sites you’ve visited. I noticed that the thumbnail generation in Cover Flow was a bit slow and lagged once in a while.

Acid Test

Safari 4 is the first browser to pass the Web Standards Project’s Acid 3 test scoring 100/100, meaning it fully complies with CSS, Javascript, XML and SVG web standards.

My Take:
So how does Safari 4 compare to other browsers? Prettier? Yes. Faster? Yes. Better? I don’t think so. Safari 4 is definitely better than its predecessor, the Safari 3 and it lives up to its “Browsing made beautiful. And Smart” tag line but IMO is not better than other competing browsers especially Firefox. But again, this is only a public beta version of Safari 4 so we could still some changes and improvement in the final version.

After trying and testing Safari 4 public beta, I’m still sticking to Firefox as my default web browser for 2 reasons. First, Safari 4 doesn’t have official plugin support (I can’t live without my plugins) and second, Safari 4 is a resource hog. With only 1 tab open, Safari 4 was using up almost double the amount of resources Firefox was using with 10 tabs open.

For those who don’t use plugins and only need a simple and fast browser that has some cool features, you should try Safari 4.

So what do you think of Safari 4? Anyone else installed and tried it on their computer? What’s your experience using Safari 4? What do you like/dislike about it? What features would you like to see added to Safari 4? Please share your thoughts and thanks for your time!

Previously, if you wanted to try or install/dual boot Ubuntu you’d have to use the live CD or create a partition on your computer with the latter being a daunting task for most users, especially those who don’t have much technical knowledge.

Now, with the help of the Wubi installer, you can try or install Ubuntu quickly and conveniently with your existing Windows-powered computer just like any other Windows program.

Wubi is an officially supported Ubuntu installer for Windows users that can bring you to the Linux world with a single click. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other Windows application, in a simple and safe way. Are you curious about Linux and Ubuntu? Trying them out has never been easier!

I’ve used the Wubi installer to install Ubuntu on my old laptop the Compaq Presario C714NR and if you’ve noticed from my comments on this blog, I’ve been using Ubuntu a lot the past few months because I also installed Ubuntu on my Toshiba Satellite A305-S6872.

System Requirements:

• Processor: 1 GHz or faster Intel/AMD processor
• Memory: 256 MB RAM
• Disk space: 5GB

If your computer meets the minimum system requirements then the next thing you need to do is download Wubi. Note that even though Wubi automatically downloads the Ubuntu installation file for you, you can also use an existing Ubuntu ISO/CD for installation. You can download the latest version of Ubuntu here. If you have a pre-downloaded ISO, it should be placed in the same folder as the wubi.exe.

In my experience, having/using a pre-downloaded ISO made the installation faster. Downloading it via Wubi took longer (this also depends on your Internet connection). When downloading your Ubuntu ISO, make sure you choose the right version for your computer 32-bit or 64-bit. To check what version your computer is running on, click on Start/Windows logo, right click on Computer, select Properties and look for System Type (either 32-bit or 64-bit Operating System).

Once you have the wubi installer and/or the ISO/CD, run the wubi.exe file and it will open this window:

1. Choose installation size (default is 15 GB).
2. Create a username.
3. Create and confirm a password.

You can also choose what Desktop Environment to install: Ubuntu/default (GNOME), Kubuntu (KDE) or Xubuntu (XFCE).

When you’re done, click Install and wait until installation process is finished then it will ask you to reboot your computer to complete the installation.

When the computer boots up again, the Windows Boot Manager will ask you which operating system to use. Select Ubuntu.

Ubuntu will be loaded and will continue/complete the installation process. Once the installation process is complete, it will reboot again. To start using Ubuntu, wait for the Windows Boot Manager screen and select Ubuntu then login using the username/password that you created earlier. To switch between Windows and Ubuntu, simply restart your computer and select with Operating System to run.

Uninstalling it is as easy as the installation. Just open Window’s Control Panel, select Add/Remove Programs, select Wubi/Ubuntu and uninstall it. Btw, Wubi works on all versions of Windows from Windows 98 to Windows Vista with the exception of Windows ME. If you have Linux/*nix/*BSD, you can use Lubi. Future plans include Mubi, a version for Mac OSX.

Here’s a screenshot of a regular Ubuntu desktop:

Here’s how my Ubuntu desktop looks like:

As you can see, I’ve customized it to imitate a Mac OSX Leopard desktop. If you want to know how to do this, I’ll be publishing a tutorial on how I did this in the coming weeks, so make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed so you won’t miss it.

Hope this simple tutorial helps you and give you the motivation to try Ubuntu. If you decide to try it out and install Ubuntu using Wubi and experience any problems, let me know by leaving a comment below or sending me a message via the Contact form and I’ll see what I can do to help.

Rumors of a next-generation iPhone have been all over the web the past few weeks and started when someone spotted an iPhone firmware referencing a certain “iPhone 2,1″. The original iPhone was referenced as 1,1, the iPhone 3G as 1,2 and if Apple stuck to their naming conventions, this would have to be the next version of the iPhone.

This image of the iPhone 4G concept came out a couple days ago and spread like wild fire. As you can see, this “upcoming” iPhone is sporting a titanium body and Apple’s new unibody Macbook design.

Specs:

• Titanium and Glass.
• OLED screen
• 3G
• GPS
• Front camera for iChat
• Removable battery
• 3.2 Megapixel camera
• Video
• 32 GB

If you ask me, the design looks okay but specifications-wise, I’m not impressed. I know these are only “fantasy” specs because this is just a concept phone, but if Apple wants to come up with a more competent device, they’ll have to provide better specs. A 3.2 megapixel camera? Common! It should be 5 megapixels at least. The only thing I like about it is the OLED screen/display which is better than a LCD display because it doesn’t require a backlight and uses less power. Apple should really come up with something more impressive as the competition is getting tougher.

Are you impressed with the iPhone 4G Concept? Do you like the unibody design or would you prefer a more “rounded” look? What specifications would you want or expect in the next iPhone model?

[via Gizmodo]

UPDATE: As of June 13, 2008, Kidzui is now FREE.

As a parent I was happy to read about this new browser for kids called KidZui. Although my kid is still too little to browse the Internet or even use the computer, it’s good to know that there’s technology or programs such as this that makes browsing the Internet safe for kids.

So what is KidZui? KidZui is basically a browser based on Internet Explorer (if you use Windows) and Safari (if you use a Mac) that “whitelists” websites, photos and videos that are suitable for children. 200 teachers and parents across the US were hired to scan the world wide web to look for appropriate content that would be included in the whitelist. As of now, KidZui has 500,000 whitelisted websites, pictures and videos. All content gathered by KidZui are manually reviewed by humans before they get included in the whitelist to make sure nothing inappropriate gets thru.

Screenshots:

Start Page

Create Zui Page

Login Page

Main Page

YouTube Video

From the images above, you can see that the user interface looks really cool and colorful which is very attractive and interesting for kids. KidZui also has the element of a social network because it lets the user add other KidZui users as friends. Friends are displayed on the right side of the panel. Other options include changing the backgrounds and selecting from several preset ones. Another thing, parents can login online and check what their kids view or do online on KidZui via a control panel where you can also customize and choose what videos, photos and websites appear on your child’s favorites.

You can download and try out KidZui FREE for 30 days. After that you can continue using it for a monthly fee of $9.95. But if you register now, you can get KidZui for the inaugural price of only $4.95 per month or $49.95 per year. If you ask me, it’s a small price to pay for your kids safety.

For parents, would you let your kids use KidZui? If given the chance what other features or options would you add to KidZui? To those who are not yet parents, you can also share your opinion or thoughts regarding this topic.

via TechCrunch

Earlier today, the folks at NewsGator announced that FeedDemon, NetNewsWire and all other RSS reader products are now available for FREE! Aside from that, all NewsGator products include free web-based synchronization to other services. With synchronization, users will be able to view their RSS content the same way no matter where or when they read it. Ain’t that neat?

Here’s a complete list of NewsGator’s products that are available free of charge:

• FeedDemon (Windows)
• NetNewsWire (Mac)
• NewsGator Inbox
• NewsGator Go for Windows Mobile
• NewsGator Go for BlackBerry/Java, iPhone and HTML mobile apps
• NewsGator Online.

I’ve always wanted to try FeedDemon but thought that the $29.95 price tag was a bit too much, so I ended up using other free alternatives like the Sage extension for Firefox, web-based Google Reader and later on Mozilla Thunderbird. Now that FeedDemon is free, I immediately downloaded and installed it on my laptop. Thanks Nick!

Btw, if you decide to download and install FeedDemon, NetNewsWire or any of NewsGator’s RSS clients don’t forget to subscribe to my feeds.

image source: NewsGator