Although the web browser wars may never be fully settled (and this is a good thing), some interesting new updates emerged on Tuesday that are worth looking into:
Camino, by the Camino Project, just reached version 1.5. The new version, a 14.8 megabyte download for the English version and an 18.1 megabyte download for the multilingual version, adds the following fixes and changes:
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Although the web browser wars may never be fully settled (and this is a good thing), some interesting new updates emerged on Tuesday that are worth looking into:
Camino, by the Camino Project, just reached version 1.5. The new version, a 14.8 megabyte download for the English version and an 18.1 megabyte download for the multilingual version, adds the following fixes and changes:
-Spelling – Spell-checking using the Mac OS X spelling dictionaries is now enabled in web page text fields.
-Feed detection РWhen a web page offers an Atom or RSS feed, Camino will display an icon in the location bar, and clicking the icon will pass the feed to the system’s default feed reading application.
-Session restore – Camino can remember which pages were open when quitting and restore them the next time it opens. After a browsing session has terminated unexpectedly, Camino will offer to restore the pages which were open previously.
Improved tabbed browsing – Single-window mode: There is a new option to force links that would open new windows to open in new tabs instead. Tab jumpback: Camino now supports returning to the original tab after viewing a page in a new tab.
-Keychain compatibility – Camino can now share Keychain entries with Safari. Keychain entries saved by Camino are now saved in a way that allows other applications to read them.
-Pop-up blocking – The pop-up blocking notification is now more visible. The new pop-up notification offers more powerful controls for managing pop-ups.
Enhanced plug-in control РCamino 1.5 includes the ability to disable all plug-ins. Flashblock: The new “Block Flash animations” option prevents Flash from starting until the user clicks the play icon.
-Window zooming РThe Zoom command now resizes the window to fit the current page‘s content instead of making the window full-screen.
-Downloading – A new optional toolbar icon in the Downloads window allows users to move downloaded files to the Trash. Items in the Downloads window can now be automatically removed upon completion or when quitting Camino.
-Searching РThe search field in the toolbar is now resizable. The context menu for selected text in web pages now includes a “Search” item.
-Cookie management – Camino now includes an option to accept cookies only for the current session.
-User interface polish – Camino 1.5 includes a major reorganization of menus and keyboard shortcuts. The preference panes have been redesigned.
-Web content РCamino now uses version 1.8.1 of Mozilla’s Gecko rendering engine, which contains thousands of bug fixes and support for new technologies like JavaScript 1.7.
Camino 1.5 requires Mac OS X 10.3 or later to run and is coded as a universal binary, allowing the program to run at native speeds on both PowerPC and Intel-based hardware.
And, not necessarily out of nowhere, but still somewhat surprising to see, Netscape has released the first public beta of its Navigator 9.0 web browser. The new version is a 16.1 megabyte download and adds the following fixes and changes:
-Visual Refresh – Netscape Navigator 9’s theme has been updated to save screen-space and leave more room for the websites you visit.
-URL Correction – Navigator 9 will automatically correct common typos in URLs. For example, if you accidentally type googlecom, Navigator will fix it be to google.com. The browser will watch for nearly 30 different types of common mistakes and correct them for you (asking you to confirm, if you choose to enable confirmation).
-News Menu and Sidebar – The latest news is built right into the browser, under the News menu. Provided by Netscape.com, you can customize the menu to only contain the news sections you want to monitor. You can also open the News sidebar to always keep an eye on what’s happening.
-Link Pad – The Link Pad is a new sidebar feature that allows you to save links/URLs that you want to visit later without cluttering your bookmarks. Just drag a link over the Link Pad status bar icon and drop it to save it in the Link Pad. By default, clicking on an item in the Link Pad will open it in the browser and remove it from the list, saving you the step of deleting it.
-News Tracker – The Netscape Tracker sidebar lets you monitor breaking news as it happens, via Netscape.com.
-In-browser voting – Share your opinions with the world! The icons in the Navigator address bar let you share interesting stories you find and vote on stories shared by others.
-Extension Compatibility РNavigator 9 shares an architecture with the latest Mozilla technologies; as such, Navigator 9 will let you install extensions that are compatible with Firefox ® 2.
-Sidebar Mini Browser – You’ve always been able to have bookmarks open in the sidebar, but we’ve improved this functionality and extended it to all links, not just bookmarks. Additionally, we’ve added a navigation toolbar to the sidebar for even easier split-screened browsing. Just right-click on a link and select “Open Link in Sidebar” to get started!
-Restart Netcape – A smalll but oft-requested feature: you can now restart Navigator (and keep your current tabs intact) by selecting “Restart Navigator” from the File menu.
-Resizeable Textarea – Drag the bottom-right corners of text fields in forms to add more typing space.
-Tab History – Opening a link in a new tab will give the new tab the same history as the source tab for a more seamless tabbed browsing experience.
OPML Support – Netscape Navigator supports importing and exporting your bookmarks in OPML, a popular format for sharing lists of newsfeeds.
-Throbber – By popular demand, the Netscape 7-style throbber is back. Click on it any time to visit Netscape.com.
-Combined Stop/Reload button – To save space in your toolbar, we’ve combined the stop and reload buttons. Because you never need both at the same time, the toolbar will only show the relevant half of the pair.
-Friends’ Activity Sidebar – If you are a member at Netscape.com, you can keep tabs on what your friends find interesting. This sidebar lets you view your friends latest votes, comments, and story submissions.
-Sitemail Notification – This icon will sport an exclamation point when you have new Netscape.com sitemail messages waiting for you.
Navigator 9 requires Mac OS X 10.2 or later to run and is coded as a universal binary, fully supporting PowerPC and Intel-based hardware.
If you’ve tried the new versions and have either positive or negative feedback about them, let us know.