Posted 08/27/09 at 03:11:27 PM by Andy Salisbury

According to a recent study by Mozilla, the number one reason for users not upgrading from Firefox 2 to Firefox 3 was the new location bar, and the fact that it went deep into people’s bookmarks to suggest sites as they typed. More than 25 percent cited this as their reason for keeping the last generation of Firefox as their browser of choice.

“When we expanded the capabilities of the location bar to search against all history and bookmarks in Firefox 3, a lot of people contacted us to say that they had certain bookmarks they didn’t really want to have displayed,” said Firefox’s principal designer, Alex Faaborg. “In some cases users had intentionally hidden these bookmarks in deep hierarchies of folders, somewhat similar to how one might hide a physical object. Having something from your previous browsing displayed to someone else who is using your computer (or even worse) to a large audience of people as you are giving a presentation, is really one of the most embarrassing things that Firefox can do to you.”

On a related note, Mozilla has introduced a private browsing mode in Firefox 3.5. So, you know, if this is the sort of thing you need to have – it’s safe to upgrade now.

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Posted 05/28/09 at 09:30:00 AM by Paul Lilly

Starting later this year, AT&T will begin upgrading its 3G network to High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2 technology, the company announced this week.

"AT&T's network infrastructure gives us a tremendous advantage in that we're able to deliver upgrades in mobile broadband speed and performance with out existing technology platform," said Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. "With the array of smartphones, laptops, and emerging devices taking advantage of AT&T's 3G network today, e know that customers are excited to experience higher mobile broadband speeds, and we are deploying the right technologies at the right times to help them get the most from that experience."

Once the upgrade is complete, AT&T says its network could theoretically peak at 7.2Mbps, however its quick to clarify that real-world downstream and upstream speeds will be less than the theoretical ceiling, dependent upon location, device, network traffic, and other factors.

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Posted 03/18/09 at 03:40:00 PM by Andy Salisbury

Opera’s latest release, dubbed Opera Turbo, touts the ability to use the company’s own server to compress the data transferred by web sites, allowing users on slow Internet connections to surf at a reasonable speed.

According to Opera’s Roberto Mateu, Opera Turbo allows a person’s PC to grab data not just from the site, but also from their very own servers that can compress that site’s text and images by up to 80 percent. It’s recommended that people on connections slower than 100Kbps use the program for optimal results.

You can download Opera Turbo here, from Opera’s site.

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