I’m forever on the hunt for trade tools that make a job easier, faster, and more interesting. In my quest for better browser dev tools I’ve come across a few great Safari extensions. Here’s the short list, a few choice add-ons to evolve Safari into a better web development weapon. (more…)
Since the release of Internet Explorer 6 in August of 2001, web designers and developers world wide had been petitioning Microsoft to update the application to better handle web standards. You could even make a case that IE6 had been de facto contributor to popularize the turn-of-the-century web standards revolution. A fight that continues today with recent incarnations of Internet Explorer; the most widely used web browser to not fully support some of the most basic web standards.
Let the party begin March 1st. Google plans to drop Google Docs and Google Sites support for IE6, as well as Google’s own Chrome 3, along with Firefox 2, and Safari 2 — can I get an amen?! It’s my opinion this will be the final blow to spur our less inspired friends, colleagues, and grandmothers to upgrade to a modern web browser, and finally release my fellow web design brethren from IE cross-site support slavery.
For more info, be sure to read up on Google’s latest move at the Official Google Enterprise Blog.
To sum up all the wisdom inside Microsoft, they have announced that Outlook 2010 will use the Word HTML rendering engine. Essentially, throwing web standards under the bus, mocking accessibility, and making HTML email render worse than it did in 2000!
In some respects, the news is almost laughable. But once that giggle wares off, and reality sets in, you realize a large majority of users are going to be stuck with an email application that renders HTML worse than it did a decade ago. That’s right, Microsoft is moving backward in time when it comes to application development.
[F]or the next 5 years your email designs will need tables for layout, have no support for CSS like float and position, no background images and lots more. Want proof? Here’s the same email in Outlook 2000 & 2010.
Why would anyone use such a ridiculous email application, you ask?
To be frank, most working users don’t have a choice. But we all do have a place to speak out and let Microsoft hear our request to make a change!
Support for Open Video and Audio. “3.5 delivers the first native integration of audio and video directly into the browser.” Which mean’s less need for plug-ins and more support for HTML5. Woohoo!
As with Safari, FF 3.5 also enabled (now by default) support for color correction for tagged images. So the images you shoot and / or whip up in Photoshop and post, if tagged with an ICC profile and saved as jpg or png, can be color corrected by FF 3.5. Now all I need is that new monitor and calibration software I’ve been eyeing up.
With the release of 3.5 new web technologies are also being pushed into existence, such as: downloadable fonts, CSS media queries, new transformations and properties, JavaScript query selectors, HTML5 local storage and offline application storage, <canvas> text, and SVG transforms.
Life might be grand one day if other browsers catch up. None-the-less, hoorah for the Mozilla team (and others) for pushing us all in the right direction!
Today, well actually it slipped yesterday, Google officially released news about their up and coming web browser Google Chrome. Chrome is another step in creating a cloud computing OS, apparently through a browser, based entirely on open source code. Chrome is based on the existing rendering engine Webkit with Firefox underpinnings, Google also created its own JavaScript Virtual Machine called V8, and it the browser will incorporate Google’s Gears project. Get more details on Google’s Blog »