Xfire has today released an update to their gaiming instant messanger. Inside the update is the abbility to browse the web in tabbed windows while you are still in game.
The browser uses an imbedded version of Internet Explorer, and is not using a new brower engine.
In game support is not available on all games, but the list of games is increasing.
Users of Xfire will have the new version pushed out to them while new users can downoad Xfire from the Xfire website.
The latest nightly build of WebKit now includes support for CSS animations. WebKit is the rendering engine used by many browsers, including Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome browser.
Dean Jacksons explains the benefits of CSS animations:
CSS Animations is one of the enhancements to CSS proposed by the WebKit project that we’ve been calling CSS Effects (eg. gradients, masks, transitions). The goal is to provide properties that allow Web developers to create graphically rich content. In many cases animations are presentational, and therefore belong in the styling system. This allows developers to write declarative rules for animations, replacing lots of hard-to-maintain animation code in JavaScript.
The new effects are already implemented in the iPhone and iPod touch browsers, and should make their way in to releases of Safari and Chrome shortly. In the mean time, you can test the new CSS animations by downloding the latest nightly release of WebKit.
Mozilla has just released Firefox 3.0.6. The new release fixes several issues found in the previous version.
Six new security flaws have been patched, including one which was rated as critical. Mozilla has also fixed several issues causing problems with the browsers stability.
A full list of changes can be found in the release notes.
The new version should be pushed out to existing users of Firefox 3 in the next few days, or alternativly can be downloded from the Firefox website.
Mozilla has delayed Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 for a second time, citing numerous bugs in the browsers new JavaScript engine.
Last Wednesday’s status meeting for 3.1 reveale there are still 18 bugs remaining. The meeting minutes show the extent of the delay. “At this time, we don’t have a good estimate for when we’ll be done”.
After the last delay, Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 was expected to be released Febrary 2nd. A new release date is not yet known.
Opera has released the final version of Opera Mini 4.2 for Google Android phones. Opera Mini 4.2 final brings back a lot of the regular features which were disabled in the early beta.
New features include the ability to upload and download files, save pages, and zoom in and out with a double tap.
Users will also be pleased to know that the password bug has now been fixed, and your passwords will be hidden as you enter them in.
Currently there is only one Android phone, T-Mobile’s G1 phone. You can download the browser from the Opera Mini website.
As promised Microsoft has made available Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1 (RC1).
IE8 RC1 can be installed on both Windows XP and Windows Vista, but is not available for the newely released Windows 7 beta.
Microsoft has posted a full list of changes since beta 2.
You can download the new versions from the Internet Explorer 8 download site.
Microsoft has announced that it will deliver the first release candidate (RC1) of Internet Explorer 8 to the public on Monday.
IE8 has been at beta 2 since August 2008, and this new early release is highly anticipated by many in the industry.
According to Microsoft, “a release candidate means the software is feature complete and the code is basically stable, and a final release is imminent”.
IE8 is more compliant with web standards such as CSS, to web developers delight.
IE8 RC1 will be released for both Windows XP and Windows Vista. We will post links to the download when they are available.
Google, as promised, has turned off the anti-phishing tool used in Firefox 2 as of 20th January. The anti-phishing tool would block sites suspected of hosting identity theft scams.
Recent Firefox build 2.0.0.19 and 2.0.0.20 have had this feature removed, but there are still thousands out there using earlier versions.
Mozilla is urging Firefox 2 users to upgrade to Firefox 3 as soon as possible. Firefox 3 includes a newer version of the anti-phishing protocol provided by Google.
Firefox 2 users can upgrade to Firefox 3 by selecting ‘Check for updates’ in the help menu, or can download the update manually from the Firefox website.
European Union regulators have laid down fresh claims that Microsoft is again in breach of its anti-trust laws.
The complaint is related to Internet Explorer being bundled with all new Windows installations.
Microsoft lost a similar case in 2004 and was forced to sell Windows versions without Windows Media Player.
This has potential repercussions across the market. Apple currently bundles Safari with every copy of Mac OS X, while most Linux distributions are bundled with Firefox.
“Microsoft’s tying of Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system harms competition between web browsers, undermines product innovation and ultimately reduces consumer choice” said a spokesman for the European Union.
Any final decision on the matter is likely to be years away.
Mozilla has pushed back the release of Firefox 3.1 beta 3 a week from January 26th to February 2nd.
After a developers meeting on Wednesday, notes reveal “due to the large number of outstanding P1 blockers, we are declaring a code slip”. This target may be optimistic however, as one developer hinted that it could be delayed by as much as three weeks.
A code freeze is now scheduled for January 25th, with QA starting on January 27th.