Once again Google has done it again. They’ve released a stellar software that you can’t help but love. Google Talk hopes to compete against AOL’s AIM, MSN’s Messenger, Yahoo’s Messenger, Cerulean Studio’s Trillian, and GAIM. Essentially it’s an instant messaging software with quality VOIP capabilities so you can call someone up over the internet and chat via voice in case you don’t feel like typing. If you have a Gmail account (required right now for beta testing) it’ll notify you of new emails.

The UI is clean, snappy, and feels nice as you use it. No advertisement, no bloat, no useless features. It’s classic Google goodness. I’ve been using Trillian for years, but the feature creep bloat has me itching for something new, and Google Talk may just be the ticket. Here’s a review from DownloadSquad.

Just saw that AOL has just released their AOL Explorer browser for download. As a web designer, I’m surprised to see this out, especially since it’s just a Internet Explorer 6.0 shell. With IE7 beta just around the corner (August 3rd, last I heard), this makes the announcement unexciting and disheartening, as both a web surfer and a web designer.

I do have to admit the UI design is very slick (see screenshot), I really like it. The features it has are nice too, it’s just a shame that it is being held back by the inferior IE6 engine. AOL should’ve used the Firefox codebase, and slap on this UI on, and it would’ve been a lot more exciting, not to mention more secure.

Update: If you install the IE7 beta, you’ll find that AOL Explorer will use that, and since the UI on IE7 beta is horrible, it works out to use AOL Explorer as the shell, since its UI is a lot nicer and usable. Never thought I’d actually use an AOL product again, but Firefox is still my main browser, for obvious reasons.

There’s no reason why anyone should be using Internet Explorer these days, and the numerous articles from the mainstream press and security companies have been a testament to that.

Therefore, I’ve put up a message to anyone still using ancient software, namely those using Internet Explorer, and AOL, that they have a choice to easily upgrade their software. This message is only viewable if you’re using Internet Explorer. If you’re not seeing the message, congratulations, you’re not stuck in the Stone Age of the Internet.

Read the rest of this entry »

3DGPU.com > Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1 Released. With over 650 bugs, 25 security vulnerabilities, and a few crashes fixed, this is an update well worth the short time to download and install it.

Wired News talk with the Norwegian guys behind the “other” browser, Opera, and provide some interesting details on the browser (namely upcoming features.) The founder at Opera whines that Firefox stole their thunder, and wonders why Opera never took off. Well I’m here to help out:

• The only popular browser that requires you to pay to use it, otherwise you’re stuck with ads.
• Weird rendering decisions, such as text sizes.
• Sites that work fine in Firefox and Internet Explorer don’t work right in Opera.
• Due to above, most web designers don’t try to fix the problem with hacks because Opera represents a steady 1% of the browsing demographics.
• Suffers from feature-creep, with ~70% of the features implemented not used by most people that download Opera.
• Not open-source like Firefox.
• Due to above reason, not as many extensions to extend the functionality of the browser, and allow people to “add their own flavor”.

That’s just off the top of my head, as I’m sure I could come up with a few more reasons. The general gist is that Opera needs to stop with the gimmicks, make their browser free, stop trying to follow in Microsoft’s footstep with IE quirks, and get rid of some of the bloat in the current browser.

For every commercial software you can’t afford, or don’t want to spend money on, there are free software out there that are equal, and in most cases, better than their paid counterparts.

No, I’m not talking about illegally downloaded programs, I’m talking about freeware (or as some like to call them, pricelessware.) There are a couple of new sites where you can find out where the good freeware programs are at. There’s The 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities and then there’s the new online magazine, Free Software Magazine.

Some other great sites for freeware:

• TinyApps - All the software that can fit on a simple floppy.
• Clean Software - Software with no adware or spyware, and are simply clean and free.
• Pricelessware - All the best freeware voted by free software geeks.

Yesterday I got a Firefox mug, poster, and plushie toy purchased from the Mozilla Store. I’m a big fan of the Mozilla Firefox browser, as you may know. Here’s the thing, I don’t know if it’s a Secret Santa gift from someone at the 3DGPU forums (we do a secret santa thing to exchange gifts), or one of my many ex-girlfriends buying me gifts again to woo me back. I’m finding out if someone at the 3DGPU forums sent it, and if so, I can breathe a sigh of relief that I’m not being stalked again.