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BetaNews.Com (4 non lus)

The once and future king: Test build of Opera crushes Chrome on Windows 7

Publié: décembre 22, 2009, 11:19pm CET par Scott M. Fulton, III

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

Download Opera 10.5 "Pre-alpha" for Windows from Fileforum now.
How's this for a Christmas miracle: We've been saying that if Opera wants to get back in the game -- if it truly wants to earn a place among the Top 5 positions on Europe's forthcoming "Choice Screen" -- then it has to pick up the pace in the performance department. Apparently while we were writing that, the developers at Opera Software were a little ahead of us on that count.
It's rare that any company should release a product for the public's inspection under the guise of "pre-alpha," but what we expect it to mean for now is, "Don't use this as a browser yet." So we won't: For now, we won't consider the pre-alpha build of Opera 10.5 -- leaked earlier this week, but officially released this morning -- as a browser that is ready to be tested in real-world scenarios. Opera is testing yet another completely new chassis, one which borrows a few ideas from Google Chrome and a few others from its own Opera Mini and Opera Mobile products. And as we discovered for ourselves -- not shockingly -- it's not a complete product, quite capable of bizarre behavior. That's what the "pre-" means, apparently.
However...What's brewing under Opera's new hood is something astonishing: three replacement libraries including a new rendering engine and a new JavaScript engine. One wonders why they're not calling this "Opera 11."
The new look of Opera 10.5 (if this is indeed representative of the first test build's appearance) is handsome. The menu bar has completely disappeared, having been absorbed into the "Big-Red-O" button in the upper left corner. Service windows such as Bookmarks, Downloads, and History are accessible from this button. You can bring the menu bar back from here, if you wish; if you do that, the "Big-Red-O" disappears.
Tabs take over the top title bar, and the sliding thumbnail previews introduced in Opera 10 appear here too. You can also adjust the tab/thumbnails bar to appear along the left side, and in 10.5, the glassy background applies here as well for Windows 7. In our tests, playing around with the title/thumbnails area too much, crashes the browser. That's to be expected from this very early build. Opera Software is advising curious testers to use extreme caution: "Do not run in hydroelectric power plants."
It's a handsome environment for the new browser, and if they get it working and clear up some of the loose ends, it could be a functional one as well. The original left-hand optional sidebar concept appears to be missing in this build, but in its place is a system where the user can create fully customizable toolbars, thus fulfilling the same purpose.
This is the level of customization and functionality that Google Chrome users have been aching for -- the possibility of a lightning fast browser that runs in something other than a plain blue box. If Google doesn't watch out, Opera is going to answer Chrome's users with what they've been asking for all year.
Next: Opera's last-second Christmas present...
Download Opera 10.5 "Pre-alpha" for Mac OS X from Fileforum now.
Download Opera 10.5 "Pre-alpha" for Windows from Fileforum now.
In initial Betanews tests involving our Comprehensive Relative Performance Index suite on the Windows 7 platform today, this incomplete rendering of a browser -- the latest version of a model that was in danger of becoming only half as fast as Mozilla Firefox -- blew right past not only Firefox but Apple Safari as well. And yes, it beat Google's fastest Chrome development build browser, by a score that's something more like a touchdown than a field goal. On our physical test machine running Windows 7, the Opera 10.5 pre-alpha scored a 24.52, meaning it delivered about 24-and-one-half times the overall JavaScript, rendering, and computational performance of Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 running in Windows Vista (the slowest browser on the slowest platform we test, which we index at 1.00).
Let's put that number into perspective: Right now, the latest stable build of Opera 10.1 scores a 6.83 on the same complete test suite -- 70 data points from 10 different benchmark batteries. The latest development build of Opera 10.2 actually trends downward, at 5.85. But those builds are using libraries that Opera Software apparently now publicly acknowledges to be obsolete. The latest stable Chrome browser, by comparison, scores a 22.32 in Windows 7; the fastest development build from Google is on the beta track (not the dev track), build 249.43, which scores 22.52 -- an extremely impressive score, and a sign that Google is maintaining a positive trend.
But the Opera test build bested all of Chrome's scores...and it did so while performing relatively poorly in the rendering department. This is the truly scary part: Opera Software is developing a new browser chassis, which so far looks very attractive under Windows 7. It's leaner, but it's not too minimalistic, and it certainly pronounces its manufacturer boldly with a big red "O." The rendering engine under that chassis is not quite finished, rendering ordinary <TABLE> elements, for example, with only half the speed of stable Opera 10.1.
If the first official alpha of Opera 10.5 is able to fix these deficiencies even to the point where it performs on a par with its current stable build, then the new browser's overall performance interval over Chrome could end up being less like a touchdown, and more like a rout. Google, Apple, and Mozilla have reason for genuine fear at this point, as the company that first made browser performance a real issue, is about to make it an issue again.
The incomplete Opera 10.5 -- were it to be a full-scale browser -- would be the absolute champion of the SunSpider JavaScript test, blowing by the Chrome 4 beta with a score of 65.66 (total time expended: 598.4 ms on our test system). By comparison, Opera 10.1 scores a 7.75 (4685.8 ms). This morning, Opera's Roberto Mateu claimed the pre-alpha was seven times faster than stable Opera 10.1 in the SunSpider. If Mr. Spock were here, he'd offer a correction: In our tests, the pre-alpha build was 783% faster -- nearly eight times. For comparison purposes, the latest Chrome 4 beta scores a 59.45 in the SunSpider test on Windows 7; and the latest WebKit daily build applied to Safari 4 (which we can now declare a safe and reliable build for performance testing) scorea a 58.67 in SunSpider on Win7. The SunSpider test was developed by WebKit contributors.
Click here for a comprehensive explanation of the Betanews CRPI index version 2.2.
Opera's old computational engine was becoming something of a dog; the new one is a genuine contender, though not yet the champion. On the new JSBenchmark from Celtic Kane, the pre-alpha scored a 14.62 on Windows 7 versus an 18.85 for the latest WebKit daily build of Safari, and a 21.46 from the latest Google Chrome 4 dev build 266.0. But that gain is still very significant for Opera, coming from just 3.32 -- compare that against Firefox 3.6 Beta 5's 7.27.
But where the Opera test build's performance is nothing short of phenomenal, even this early on, is in graphics rendering. Opera 10.1 was already strong here. But in rendering the moving 3D test cubes, the 10.5 pre-alpha destroyed all records, posting a 6.52 on Windows 7 versus 3.14 for Opera 10.1, and 2.87 for both the Chrome 4 beta build and the Safari + WebKit dev build. And where Opera 10.1 was weak -- specifically, the Canvas object rendering test, using outlines of the mainland US and Alaska supplied by Yahoo -- the 10.5 pre-alpha was spellbinding as well, posting a 63.97 score in Windows 7 versus the Safari + WebKit dev build score of 31.60, and the Chrome 4 beta build's score of 30.42.
All our performance tests for this article were on Windows 7 -- we have yet to complete our scoring for Windows XP and Vista on the same test machine. XP has been known to be Chrome's "home turf," where Google racks up the biggest and best numbers (since XP was at one time the most installed OS on netbooks, where Google wants to make the biggest impact). If these same margins apply to the other two Windows platforms, then the moment Opera makes its release official, we may have a new runaway leader in the browser battle -- the come-from-behind story of 2010.
Download Opera 10.5 "Pre-alpha" for Mac OS X from Fileforum now.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Facebook users share 'Everything,' including how sorry their lives are

Publié: décembre 22, 2009, 7:20pm CET par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Social networking site Facebook has more than 350 million active users, and more than 35 million users update their "status" every day. They could be updated with personal information, music, videos, links, or anything that users feel the need to share with their social group.
During 2009, nearly 13 billion of these status updates were posted, and Facebook has released its "Top Status trends of 2009," indicating just what was on people's minds.
The top status update trend was "Facebook Applications," which includes automatic posts made by the hugely annoying Farmville game from Zynga. This game proved to be extremely popular this year, and has 72 million monthly active users. This application prompts users to post numerous status updates which aid other players of the game, and helps them progress faster.
But because this isn't exactly an active post made by users, it's the second place that is most interesting: FML.
FML is a shorthand expression for "F*** my Life" which is usually tacked onto the end of a description of something bad that has happened to the speaker. It is most effectively employed in situations with ironic or ridiculous outcomes.
"Today, I received my passport in the mail. They got my birthdate wrong. Then I picked up my birth certificate that I had sent in with the application. Turns out my parents have been celebrating my birthday on the wrong day for 16 years. FML"
The phrase is actually a translation of the French abbreviation "VDM," or "Vie de Merde," which began as an IRC channel where friends could share stories of comedic suffering. The phrase was then loosed on the general public as a dedicated microblog in 2008, and has since become a common expression in French online conversation.
In 2009, both the site and phrase grew beyond their French origins and were released in Swedish (FFML), Italian (VDM), Spanish (PVDM), and English with language-specific taglines. It has been a hit in all of them, and looks to be a socio-linguistic phenomenon.
"We get a lot of e-mails and posts on the blog section of the Web site thanking us...mainly pointing out the fact that people get a kick out of laughing at some of the stories posted on the site," fmylife.com's Alan Holding told Betanews today. "Through the auto-moderation system, the users can also contribute to the direction the site can go in, and the user involvement part is very popular with the users, it's becoming a real community. And the comments section under each FML story shows that sometimes, people from other countries and cultures can empathize with the original posters, so we can definitely say that the same sh** happens to us all over the world!"
"The main ingredient of the stories posted on fmylife.com is the ability to laugh at your own mishaps, and have the guts to share it with the world," Holding continued. "On sites like Postsecret for example, the posts are way more serious most of the time, but the fact that people are willing to share with others shows that it's borne from a real need to share. Anonymity enables us to do so without running the risk of being 'found out', even though the theory is that people write diaries with the subconscious desire to have them read by other people. So these sites offer a sort of half-way measure, a way to share things that have to come out, it's always been said that a problem shared is a problem halved, so I hope that in sharing these stories, people are unburdened in a way of what they've been holding back, and burning a hole in their brain, through shame, disgust, etc. But have to be funny as much as possible! To make it on to the site, the story has to be true, or at least plausible, funny, not (too) gross, amusing, bittersweet, there's no real criteria, but it the idea behind the site isn't to present a collection of sad stories of depressing woe, but an alternative look at the crap that happens to us every day, as well- written as possible, with a modicum of self mockery!"
So the combination of Schadenfreude, anonymity, and repetitive branding turned FML from an anonymous thread into a full-fledged aphorism in half a dozen languages. Impressive, to say the least.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Hey, Microsoft, Betanews readers have some 2010 advice for you

Publié: décembre 22, 2009, 6:28pm CET par Joe Wilcox

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Betanews readers are an opinionated lot, so it's no surprise they've got a few things to tell Microsoft about how to run the business. On December 7, I asked readers to offer their advice for Microsoft in 2010 -- and, whoa, have they done it.
By the way, I'll offer advice, too, sometime next week. I've been doing it for the last couple years in lieu of making predictions. Meanwhile, here are readers' recommendations:
xsnred: "Would it really hurt MS to give away their OS in 2010? I mean really. Even at $19.95, but wait, act now and will send you a free copy of Office 2010, MS and Gateboy will still be uber rich. I realize this is an absurd suggestion, but it seems to be the least MS can do for the public that they have led around by the nose for 25 years now."
johnrc2: "Don't just copy your competitors. Innovate. I know there are brilliant people at Microsoft. Unleash them, and take the lead back from Apple and Google."
fadeblack: "Strip the OS and make the world's leanest, fastest OS. Then sell browsers, e-mail and everything else that chokes a OS seperate. You then don't have to worry about the UA lawsuits. Everything will be low price pieces. Everyone will be happy getting just [what] they want."
Floodland: "Use the KISS concept (Keep It Simple Stupid) when developing new software. That does not mean to produce crippled software. Just avoid the .NET philosophy (thousands of shared libraries hanging without reason, hard to deploy, hard to maintain and very hard to diagnose when something goes wrong). There are many examples of good software to look at (not yours)."
rojo:
1. Get Natal to market this year since it executes on the "Natural User Interfaces" vision.
2. Bring Natal-like experiences to Windows Mobile 7. This and #1 will gain mindshare.
3. Release a new Windows Home Server product.
4. Create a Microsoft branded phone.
5. Release a HTML5 and CCS3 compliant IE9 by June with a radically new UI.
6. The Zune platform is good but you need to switch to a 6-month release cycle to catch up to Apple. Create lala.com-like features on Zune.net for Zune pass subscribers.
7. Add movies/TV to the Zune pass subscription to compete with Netflix Watch Instantly.
8. Take ZuneHD and store global.
9. Add Microsoft stores in Dallas, Chicago, New York, LA, and San Fran but make them look radically different. Like your visitor center on the main campus in Redmond. That would make a fantastic store concept. http://www.istartedsomet...icrosoft-visitor-center/
10. Show off Windows 8 at PDC in 2010.
Aires: "There's too little inter-connectivity (which I've wrote about before). Bing, Xbox, Windows 7, Windows Mobile - they're all too separate from each other and not tightly knit. I can't remember what I wrote before about 6mths to a year ago, but it was brilliant. Microsoft have no seeming overall strategy in place and they need one badly. Oh and Microsoft need to buy out Opera if they want a foothold in the mobile market."
pforbes: "The permanent introduction of new operating systems and the lifecycle policy give a sense of provisionality to all Microsoft products, but when you know what you have in your hands you find that the new 'invention' means only a few new essential things and a lot of eye candy. New real advantages should be offered and sold as improvements to an essential permanent NT OS, so that you could introduce them easily into your present computers forgetting once and for always the damned lifecycle policy according to which anything you buy to Microsoft has to be abandoned in a short time to be replaced by something which is 90% similar to what you previously had."
jc_lvngstn:
1. XP shipped with what, three different skins? Microsoft proceeded to act as if it couldn't care less if anyone ever did anything else with it. They need to include at least some more powerful skinning options with windows, aka windowblinds or something.
2. Windows needs some 'cool' or 'wow' apps. Things that surprise people in how cool it is. The apps that ship with Windows (calculator, wordpad, PAINT) are about as bland and uninteresting as they come.
3. ...Microsoft marketing...it's fail. Horrible fail. They need a some true visionary here also.
mdn777901: "Please, Microsoft, One answer emails, Two provide contact numbers/e-mail addresses for repair shops. Legitimate shops like ours have no problem registering with you all. If a computer doesn't have a MS License, they either buy a legitimate one or we won't work on it. Come up with an OS install disk similar with the Vista Anytime disk. Retail purchases kills the profit margin for little shops like ours. Of course, I can refuse to repair Windows 7 computers which won't exactly be a positive advertisement for Microsoft Win 7, but do you leave us much choice?"
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Shut up and drive: The menace that is mobile technology

Publié: décembre 22, 2009, 1:12am CET par Carmi Levy

By Carmi Levy, Betanews

I like my toys behind the wheel as much as everyone else. Between my GPS, iPod, BlackBerry, and DVD player, I've got enough technology to avoid getting lost, stay entertained, stay connected, and keep my seat-belted kids from beating each other silly. I have no idea how my Luddite parents survived the Dark Ages before in-car electronics, and I'm not sure I ever really want to know.
Before setting off on a drive, it takes me about five minutes to get all my doo-dads connected and working. My wife, bless her, usually gives me a small grace period for fiddling before her patience wears thin.
Wakeup call from a trucker
After a particularly harrowing experience on the highway yesterday, I'm seriously considering turning them all off for good. While cruising along at an easy 70 mph and minding my own business in the middle lane, I heard what sounded like a gunshot. Straight ahead of me, the shredded tread from an obviously just-exploded tire flew out from under the trailer of an 18-wheeler in the right lane and rapidly closed in on my windshield.
I did my best Michael Schumacher impression as I aggressively tossed the wondervan into the left lane and watched the flailing piece of rubber disappear to the right side of the car. Small pieces of debris bounced off of the hood as if to reinforce just how close we had come to having a really bad day.
After the adrenalin rush subsided and I was able to explain to the kids why I had just introduced them to the wonders of high-g maneuvering on a public highway, I thought about the amount of time I had to avoid disaster -- namely none -- and what might have happened had I instead been busy with my GPS, my iPod, my BlackBerry or the kids' DVD player. It wouldn't have been pretty.
The long arm of the law
My home province, Ontario, just enacted a law that bans the use of handheld electronics at the wheel. Effective now, drivers here aren't allowed to hold a cell phone to their ear, fiddle with an iPod, touch their GPS, or even text their mothers-in-law. As part of sweeping changes to eliminate accidents caused by distracted drivers, the provincial government is cracking down on any behind-the-wheel activity that takes the driver's eyes off the road. If a cop catches you not using a hands-free device or otherwise playing with your toys instead of devoting your full attention to piloting your vehicle, it'll cost you.
Good. Because if I had been skipping to the next song on my iPod when the tire just ahead of me decided to let go with a bang, I might be writing this from a very different place.
As scared straight as I am by yesterday's experience, I'm concerned that I'm screaming into the wind. Our collective desire for mobile gadgets reached the insatiable stage years ago, and is probably somewhere near scarily-addictive by now. What alarms me about the industry's apparent fascination with in-car electronics is its unwillingness to consider the potential dark side of this trend.
In recent years, vendors have been falling all over themselves with glee as miniaturization, integration, and economies of scale all converged on the automotive space. Thanks largely to Moore's Law, devices and capabilities that may once have been too large, expensive, feature-deficient, or cumbersome to build into a car have suddenly become feasible and affordable for pretty much everyone. The average family vehicle -- long a technological dead zone of half-melted cassettes and dusty AAA maps -- is suddenly a prime target for the latest mobile gadgets, and drivers are only too happy to buy in.
Saving the car industry, one option at a time
Car manufacturers, desperate for anything approaching profitability in the wake of their recessionary near-death/government-bailout experience, increasingly see in-car electronics as something approaching salvation. Adding $2,000 in-car nav systems and mobile Wi-Fi hotspots to virtually every model in the range allows carmakers to pad margins and drive recurring revenue (what, you thought those wireless subscriptions were free?) in an era where selling the basic car is no longer enough to guarantee survival.
But just because you can sell the giant screen that drops down from the ceiling so your kids can watch Dora the Explorer over a satellite link doesn't necessarily mean you should. On the last van I test-drove, the screen blocked the rear-view mirror for taller drivers, and the interface for getting it to work forced some parents to divert their attention away from the road while they tried desperately to get Dora back. On that same vehicle, the in-car nav -- part of a $2,500 option package -- was mounted relatively low in the center stack and used so many small buttons around the screen that even the supposedly well-trained sales rep gave up in frustration. And she was parked in the driveway.
As much as modern drivers like to pack their cars with the equivalent of a data center's worth of computing power, the sad truth is that little of it contributes to the act of driving safely, while much of it actually inhibits one's ability to keep one's vehicle between the lanes and in one piece. I've always known this somewhat logically, of course, but it was driven home when I realized just how close we all came to being smacked by an errant piece of road debris. When it happened, I was doing everything my driving instructor taught me to do, including looking down the road and actively watching for any trouble. The car I had just passed, whose driver may or may not have been texting her mother-in-law? I'm betting she wasn't.
At some point, our fascination with all things technological needs to align in some form with the basic physics of everyday life. At some point, someone we know will be on the wrong end of a texting driver or a Dora-finding parent, and by then it may be too late to wonder why we never bothered to check our unabashed adoration of in-car electronics at the door.
Carmi Levy is a Canadian-based independent technology analyst and journalist still trying to live down his past life leading help desks and managing projects for large financial services organizations. He comments extensively in a wide range of media, and works closely with clients to help them leverage technology and social media tools and processes to drive their business.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009