IE overall usage slips, but IE 8 gains

From August (top) to September (below), Internet Explorer lost a bit of usage share compared with rival browsers.

(Credit: Net Applications)

All four of Internet Explorer's main rivals gained a larger share of users worldwide from August to September, new statistics show.

According to Net Applications, which tracks browser usage globally through a network of 40,000 Web sites and some statistical processing, IE slipped from 67 percent to 65.7 percent of users.

Firefox has steadily won over more users since version 1.0 arrived nearly five years ago, and it continued the trend with an increase from 23 percent to 23.8 percent. Apple's Safari rose from 4.1 percent to 4.2 percent, Google Chrome from 2.8 percent to 3.2 percent, and Opera from 2 to 2.2 percent. Although a few tenths of a percent may sound small, multiplied by the millions of browser users over the Internet, it can mean a large absolute number of people.

Firefox passed an important milestone over the month-long period, with the newer Firefox 3.5 replacing version 3.0 as the leading version. The newer version furthers Mozilla's ambitions to upgrade Web technologies with new features such as faster JavaScript and built-in video.

Microsoft has restarted what had been a somewhat dormant browser developer program, releasing IE 8 earlier this year. But IE 6 still is the leading version of Microsoft's browser, followed by IE 7 in second place.

In a bright spot for Microsoft, though, IE 8 usage increased from 15.1 percent to 16.8 percent, as IE 6 and IE 7 dropped.

Originally posted at Deep Tech

AVG 9: Faster scans, ID protection service

The feature-rich versions of popular security program AVG have been updated, with AVG Technologies claiming faster scan times, faster boot times, and other under-the-hood improvements. While version 8 introduced a consolidated product line, making those features work better together takes the attention of AVG Internet Security 9 and AVG Anti-Virus 9.

AVG 9 looks very similar to AVG 8. Most of the changes are under the hood.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

AVG is making some bold claims for these updates. The company is touting scan times that are "up to 50 percent" faster, based on marking files safe until their file structure changes, and boot times that are "10 to 15 percent" faster. Memory usage is also expected to be "10 to 15 percent" better, as well. The built-in firewall, available only in the Internet Security version, uses a new database for automatically determining if certain programs are safe to access the Internet without user input. This trusted database, called TrustedDB by AVG, should be less intrusive by querying for user input 50 percent less often than in the previous version, says AVG. Also, the installation process has been shortened from 22 screens to 11.

There are few wholly new features available in version 9, but an interesting one is the Identity Theft Recovery Unit. Included in AVG Anti-Virus and AVG Free, but only for users in the United States, ITRU is a business partnership with Identity Guard which provides "consumer identity theft solutions." Accessible only from the browser toolbar, which only works in Firefox or Internet Explorer, the service provides "a dedicated identity theft recovery unit with fraud experts," to assist handling, getting and analysing a credit report, enrolling in credit file monitoring, and offering report-filing support.

In hands-on testing last week, I found AVG to be relatively easy to navigate around, although the interface could be simpler. When you click on one of the items in the main window, you must double-click on one of the features to access more information on it. A single click, or even a mouse-over pop-up, would make the experience faster. Before I even ran my first scan, AVG detected icons associated with Pidgin as threats.

Double-checking them against Avira and McAfee revealed those detections as false positives, and when I finally ran the Fast Scan it took longer than 20 minutes. That doesn't compare favorably to competitors, some of which can complete a first Fast Scan in around 60 seconds. I was also surprised to find that Mozilla Thunderbird was not automatically approved to go through the firewall, despite the new firewall trusted database. While the installation process offers to install the browser toolbar for you, it doesn't seem possible to opt out during the installation and then install it later from the AVG interface, a strange oversight.

AVG Internet Security 9 is available for $49.99, and AVG Anti-Virus costs $34.99. Both come with a one-year license and a 30-day trial, although AVG Anti-Virus lacks the firewall, identity protection, antispam, and system tools that come in AVG Internet Security. Fans of the free version of AVG 9 will have to wait a bit longer, as AVG always delays the release of Free until after the full suites have been made public.

Native Client in Chrome: Google flexes Web muscle

Google has built its Native Client technology into its newest version of Chrome, endowing the browser with new processing power for running Web applications.

Native Client, or NaCl for short, is an ambitious Google project that, if successful, will help close one gap that separates Web applications from those that run natively on a computer's operating system. That would improve the competitive position of Web applications such as Google Docs compared to Microsoft Office--and thereby boost Google's Chrome OS project in comparison with Windows.

Most Web browsers run programs written in JavaScript or perhaps Flash, both of them running on a programming foundation that makes those programs slower than native software. But Native Client lets programmers write software that directly taps into x86 chip models such as AMD's Athlon or Intel's Core. Secial programming tools and a screening mechanism in the Native Client software itself are designed to provide security for what has historically been the risky process of downloading executable programs from the Net

Chrome Version: 4.0.220.1, released Friday, "introduces the Native Client as a built-in feature for the first time on Windows," said Jonathan Conradt, a Google engineering program manager, in a blog post about the release. Previously the software was available only as a browser plug-in.

Google also offers a variety of basic tests and more elaborate examples of what Native Client can do, though it takes a bit of technical configuration to get them working. Among them are spinning ray-traced globes, the Game of Life, and the Quake first-person shooter video game.

Native Client shows how Google is using Chrome as a vehicle to advance its Web programming agenda. While some competitors such as Microsoft have a strong business of software that runs natively on a computer, Google wants software to run on central servers on the Internet.

This cloud computing approach has some advantages--being able to more easily collaborate and share documents for example, or to see and edit documents using any PC or smartphone. Google was born on the Web and has an incumbent's advantage there over rivals, but as an applications foundation, the Web remains slow and primitive compared to native applications in many regards.

Get GPS directions and hack and slash your way to glory: iPhone apps of the week

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

According to a new study I came across at AppleInsider, Apple's iPhone OS has 40 percent of the Web market share. This study doesn't specifically reflect iPhone or iPod Touch sales, rather it shows that the iPhone OS dominates around the globe when it comes to mobile handset Web browsing. The two areas where iPhone doesn't dominate (Asia and Africa) are places where the Symbian OS had an early foothold and continues to be number one.

We all know the iPhone is doing extremely well around the world, but I have to think this particular dominance (52 percent, just in the US) is more about the simplicity of the iPhone and iPod touch Web browsing experience than it is about the number of Apple handsets. My hunch is that people are not just using Safari for iPhone, but using it often because it's almost like browsing on a desktop computer. In any case, it's great news for Apple, but even greater news for us--as the iPhone continues to rise in popularity (by whatever means), you can bet that cool new apps are going to keep on coming!

This week's apps include an affordable GPS directions app and a dungeon crawling RPG that had a brief development hiccup, but is back and ready for you to start hacking and slashing.

Find the nearest coffee, gas station, or restaurants, or you can type in an address

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

MotionX GPS Drive ($2.99) is an affordable GPS directions system you can use for driving directions or just to find nearby restaurants and other common locations. The interface for this app is extremely well designed, letting you not only enter an address for step-by-step driving or walking directions, but it also locates commonly searched locations making it easy to find what you're looking for. When you're ready, view your route on the map to begin your journey.

MotionX GPS Drive claims to be always up-to-date, meaning that search, maps, routing, and points of interest always come with the latest information (like up-to-date phone numbers for chosen locations or immediate routing changes when you miss a turn, for example). The app also offers voice directions so you can keep your eyes on the road; the first month is free, but you'll need to purchase a plan for voice directions beyond that. Overall, though other GPS systems at the app store provide more features, MotionX GPS offers up an incredibly useful tool with a slick and intuitive interface at a fraction of the cost.

Beautiful animated 3D graphics and endless character upgrades make this title one of the best RPGs to date

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

Dungeon Hunter is a hack-and-slash RPG with excellent graphics and fun for any RPG enthusiast. Start by choosing between three classes including a warrior, a rogue, or a mage. The Warrior gives you the slow but steady strength to endure tons of enemies, while the rogue is more about killing quickly before you take too much damage. The mage has spells to zap monsters and a protective magic shield for defense. Each character provides a unique way to play the game so it's fun to go back and complete levels using different fighting styles. Dungeon Hunter will appeal to fans of Diablo and Dungeon Siege, because it offers a similar kind of hack-and-slash gameplay along with quests, character advancement, and numerous abilities to choose as you progress.

This the second time Dungeon Hunter has appeared in the iTunes Store because during their initial launch a major bug prevented players from passing a certain level of the game. Fortunately, the game has been patched up and made it through it's second round of Apple's somewhat infamous app approval process. In any case, with clean console-like graphics, surprisingly good onscreen controls, great sounds, and a staggering amount of skills to obtain and use, Dungeon Hunter is a great purchase for fans of the dungeon-crawling genre.

What's your favorite iPhone app? Did you purchase other more expensive GPS apps like Tom Tom app and have thoughts on newer cheaper GPS apps like MotionX GPS Drive? Is Dungeon Hunter the best hack-and-slash RPG so far for the iPhone? Let me know in the comments!

Send a video ringtone from your Android phone

(Credit: Vringo)

Like most mobile platforms, Android phones can assign ringtones to incoming calls. What the platform can't do on its own is let callers choose their own favorite ringtones to play when calling a friend. Vringo for Android is a beta application that can do that. What's more, it makes this self-chosen ringtone a video ringtone, which is immensely cooler.

Vringo got its start on Java feature phones, and now works on BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Symbian, too. Here's the premise--you sign up for an account and choose one or more video ringtones, or "vringos," to use. You download it, and can set your vringo, changing it as often as you like. That vringo becomes the ringtone that other Vringo buddies see when you call them. You also see it when your own phone rings with an incoming call--unless the caller is a fellow Vringo user, in which case you see the Vringo they've selected, not the vringo you've chosen. Got all that?

After logging in on the Android phone, new users will see a dashboard with three preloaded video ringtones to get started. You can get more from Vringo's library by browsing categories. We're disappointed that there seems to be no search feature. After a 5-second default preview (you can click to see a full clip at launch, except for the Marvel category), you can decide to download the vringo to your gallery.

Most vringos are free, with Marvel-themed Vringos costing $2. Unfortunately, Vringo beta for Android also doesn't seem to let you filter by price, something that will need to happen as more premium vringos are offered. You can add your own vringos by uploading a video from the Android phone, or by recording a new video to turn into a vringo. You can also create new vringos from the computer in the online Vringo Studio beta by importing a video from a Web URL.

At this point, Vringo for Android beta isn't in the Android Market. You'll need to download the APK file from the mobile browser, then install it using an app like AppInstaller, which you can get from the Market (hint: search "installer" to see a list of choices). Open the installer app you chose and select Vringo. You'll need to make sure that you've configured the phone to accept applications downloaded outside of the Market environment. If you have not, the installer should prompt you. Here's another hint, if the application icon doesn't appear in the program list, try rebooting the phone.

Vringo hasn't told us much about the new beta yet, so we'll fill in more information as we get it. In the meantime, you can try it out for free. You get the first premium vringo free as well, so choose wisely.

Originally posted at Android Atlas

BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac: Hands-on

Music syncing is the only media feature right now, but it easily grabs iTunes playlists.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

On Friday, BlackBerry maker RIM released its first-ever Desktop Manager for Mac users. As we announced last week, the free BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac will update certain apps, back up and restore BlackBerry content, and sync content like music playlists, contacts, and calendar items between your Mac to your smartphone.

We spent some time managing our BlackBerry Bold with it. So far, our experience has been positive. However, RIM did miss some opportunities in this first release, especially on the multimedia front. We'll come back to those a little later.

BlackBerry Desktop Manager replaces earlier syncing software, PocketMac for BlackBerry, which paired an application installer with content-syncing tools similar to RIM's new offering. The new Desktop Manager significantly offers backup and restore options, and limited media transfers.

BlackBerry Desktop Manager installed notably faster than its Windows counterpart (which also includes a separate Roxio-powered media management center.) Like the Windows version, it requires a computer reboot after the initial installation. We were pleased that instead of cloning the Windows interface, RIM tried to construct a Mac-specific feel, down to the Eject icon.

The desktop manager syncs organizer data between your Mac and BlackBerry, like your contacts, calendar items, notes, and tasks--so long as your computer and the apps, like Entourage and Google Calendar, are set up for syncing (details here). You'll need to further configure syncing preferences for each of the items from the application's left panel. If your phone offers wireless data syncing, you can also sync over Wi-Fi.

We were most impressed with the manager's music-loading features, although right now they're limited to songs from your iTunes library, and to the contents of playlists at that. However, the interface of the music pane makes it easy to select all your playlists, only some, or only as many songs as fit the BlackBerry's memory (you'll be able to first choose a storage location for music--media card or device memory--when you set up your phone.) We had to create a new playlist in iTunes to transfer specific songs over, but the BlackBerry Desktop Manager quickly assimilated the change, and our songs transferred over quickly the second time, after the first sync failed.

We just wish that RIM had been able to include photo and video transfers in this release, to enrich the multimedia management offerings.

Now what about those apps? BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac includes an application component that installs and deletes apps. Even better, an updater can automatically install new version updates to your phone, but only to RIM's core software (like e-mail), and to third-party apps that were preloaded in your phone before you bought it. These might include apps like Documents To Go and WorldMate Live. The desktop manager won't update third-party apps that you downloaded after purchasing the phone.

Backup and restore functionality are two other mobile phone management mainstays. Like all modules in this app, they're easily accessed in a click. Backing up your data saves a .BBB file that you can additionally choose to encrypt and password protect, or not. As a nice perk, you can set up the manager to automatically back up your BlackBerry each time you connect. The data restore feature gives you options for restoring all data at once, or selecting specific information.

Apart from more fleshed-out multimedia transferring capabilities, the Mac version of BlackBerry's desktop manager lacks a few other key features that are available in the Windows version. Bluetooth support is one of them. Users also won't be able to easily import the content of their old Windows Mobile, Palm, or BlackBerry to a new BlackBerry on their own, and business users miss out on BlackBerry Enterprise Server features like syncing corporate e-mail. All these need to be enabled in the Mac version to make it a complete package.

BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac 1.0 works with Mac 10.5 and up, and with BlackBerry phones running operating system 4.2 or later (most phones purchased in the last two years should fit this category). To sync your music, you'll need iTunes 7.7.1 at least (iTunes 9 is the most recent version). You'll also need a media card or sufficient on-board phone memory.

Learn more about BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac in our slideshow.

Docs To Go for iPhone finally gets Excel

Filling in a blank spreadsheet is an uphill battle, but one you can win.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

Ever since Documents to Go came out on iPhone--both the standard version and with Microsoft Exchange Attachments--the publisher has been keeping our interest with promises of a version that could edit Excel documents and create new ones in addition to just viewing them.

That version, Documents to Go 2.0, is now here. The update brings Documents To Go back to fairly equal footing with rival Quickoffice Mobile Office Suite, which added Excel creation and editing support a month before.

In addition to viewing Excel XLS and XLSX documents, both Documents To Go apps can now also create new spreadsheets and edit existing ones. After taking a quick spin through the features, we can say it looks as if publisher DataViz, like Quickoffice, has been able to cram a lot of core features into a small space. There's support for multiple spreadsheets, and the capability to resize rows and columns and search cells (the Find feature). There are also formatting and typeface tools, and support for older, even password-protected, worksheets.

While the addition of Excel support brings this app back into direct competition with the Quickoffice suite, what's true in both cases is that it's infinitely easier to edit an Excel document on the iPhone than it is to create one fresh. However, if you must put your tapping fingers through the pages, then the opportunity is now, finally, here.