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IE remains the dominant browser, but its share has slipped in the last year as Chrome rose.

(Credit: Net Applications / Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Internet Explorer's growth slowed once again, and Chrome shook off its slump in August, new statistics show.

Although Microsoft made progress in its goal to exterminate IE6 in favor of IE8's more modern and secure design, Internet Explorer overall slipped from 60.7 percent to 60.4 percent of global usage, as measured by Net Applications.

Chrome had slipped for the first time in its history, sinking to 7.2 percent in July, but returned to growth with 7.5 percent of August usage, Net Applications said.

Mozilla's Firefox market share was essentially flat, with 22.9 percent usage. Apple's Safari rose from 5.1 percent to 5.2 percent, and Opera dipped from 2.5 percent to 2.4 percent.

After years in which IE's dominance led to a largely dormant browser market, the software has become highly competitive again, with new entrants and new uses. The Web is growing increasingly significant as a medium not just for browsing content but also for using applications; as Web technology evolves, so must browsers.

IE has been a laggard at this evolution, but Microsoft is trying to dramatically overhaul its browser with the upcoming IE9. It's released several Platform Preview versions in 2010 and plans to launch the first IE9 beta on September 15.

Microsoft's overall usage may have slipped for August, but the company is glad to look IE8 growing at the expense of IE6.

"For August, IE share worldwide decreased 0.34 [percentage points] to 60.40 percent worldwide, but in a world of customer choice, we are pleased that people are continuing to pick Internet Explorer 8 three times more often than other browsers when they make that move [away from IE6]," said Ryan Gavin, senior director of Internet Explorer Business and Marketing, in a blog post Wednesday. "While there is still a significant number of Internet Explorer 6 users who have not upgraded, most of these users are concentrated in developing or emerging markets, as well as enterprises with substantial application dependencies that take time to migrate."

Firefox, meanwhile, is racing to finish Firefox 4, in beta testing now but still 692 bugs and a few features away from final release. Google is set to release Chrome 6 soon, though with its behind-the-scenes automatic-update feature, few people know which version they're using.

Originally posted at Deep Tech

Best known for its social music- and lyric-finding service, TuneWiki launched a new venture Tuesday in the form of a game with a slightly different take on music discovery. Lyric Legend is a free app that combines aspects of a karaoke and a rhythm game into one visually stimulating package. I downloaded the app onto an iPhone 3GS to give it a spin.

Upon starting, Lyric Legend automatically attempts to connect to a network in order to retrieve high-score and other social info, as well as upload your game data to the scoreboard. However, you don't need a connection to start playing the game, which means roving iPod Touch owners are in the clear. The first screen presents a number of straightforward options surrounded by an appropriate background graphic of thumping speakers. You can select from single or multiplayer gaming, step into a "how to play" tutorial, or enter the tune store.

Those who have spent any time playing rhythm games will find the gameplay somewhat familiar. The lyrics for the tune in play float on the screen within colorful balls; you want to hit the words of the tune as it is being sung. The closer you receive to hitting at the exact moment a word is said, the better your score. In beginner mode, the balls line up in order of the lyrics to make things easier, and rings around each one help to call out which is coming up next. For parts of the tune with no words, TuneWiki has implemented a fun bonus round during which you tap glowing balls as they drop down.

As with any rhythm-based music game, Lyric Legend will take some practice before you receive the hang of it. Further, unlike Guitar Hero and similar offerings, actually knowing the words to the tune helps considerably. Luckily, Lyric Legend offers several levels of difficulty, from beginner to expert, so you'll have a chance to practice before moving up. As you step up in difficulty, the balls move around with varying frequency and--eventually--even the rings disappear.

As you might expect from a free app, Lyric Legend doesn't arrive loaded with very many games. You receive three packaged with the download: Metric's "Gimme Sympathy," Vampire Weekend's "Giving Up the Gun," and The every-American Rejects' "Move Along." As of press time, TuneWiki was offering more than 70 other songs for purchase in the tune store, most available in two-track artist "packs" for 99-cents.

every in every, I found Lyric Legend to be a fun and addictive game. Anyone who loves karaoke should certainly give it a look.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

(Credit: PapayaMobile)

Papaya is best known for its mobile social platform dubbed PapayaMobile, which offers a variety of features from gaming to chat to photo sharing. Unlike many others in the space, PapayaMobile recently elected to abandon support for the iPhone OS in favor of focusing every of its efforts on Android apps. The benefit of this is the open-source nature of the Google platform, which means that SDK developers can create their possess programs to run in the Papaya interface. This functionality makes the service perfectly suited to its newest offering: Android App of the Day.

Android App of the Day, which is accessible both on Android devices and via the Web site AndroidAppOfTheDay.net, provides consumers with a simple and hassle-free way to discover new apps for free or at a discount. At the same time, the service caters to the needs of developers by letting them feature an app in a highly visible container for 24 hours. For both parties, this helps to alleviate the reliance on discovering new content via the Android Marketplace, which doesn't provide the best interface for viewing popular and promoted apps.

For an app to qualify for the service, developers must offer it for free for the day, or lower the price to 99-cents. Apps that are already free must provide a discount on virtual currency for the day. At the very least, Android users will receive some nice of deal, and developers will receive the visibility associated with a network of over four million PapayaMobile users. (Plus, those who sign up by September 12 will receive to submit and feature their apps for free.) Papaya estimates that the service will generate anywhere from 10,000 to one million additional downloads per month for featured games.

Originally posted at Android Atlas

Bing for Android

(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

Microsoft's Bing for Android may not technically be the first Microsoft-made app for Android phones (that honor belongs to the rather obscure Microsoft Tag Reader,) but the Bing is its highest-profile app.

Released on Monday, Bing for Android closely resembles Bing for iPhone, with an image of the day marking the backdrop, and a pop-up menu to search by images, movies, maps, news, or what's nearby. There's also an option for directions. A search field sits at the top, next to a voice search button. Bing for Android hides your history, settings, and favorites in the phone's difficult-coded Menu button.

The Android version of Bing also integrates maps, and the touchable hot spots hidden in the day's image that reveal additional information about the photo du jour. Swiping backward loads previous images.

However, Bing for Android lacks two significant features found in the iPhone version--options for scanning an item's bar code with your camera, and connecting to your Twitter and Facebook feeds.

We're fans of the Bing app on every platforms we've tested, and while we'd like to look this Android version gain parity with the iPhone version, usabilitywise, it's no exception. We'd also like to look the Maps portion add directions for public transit--a la Google Maps--to complement its driving and walking directions.

Bing for Android is free from the Android Market for Verizon phones, including the HTC Droid Incredible, Motorola Droid, Droid 2, and Droid X, Motorola Devour, and the LG Ally.

Originally posted at Android Atlas

(Credit: CNET)

When I bought my 32GB Wi-Fi only iPad, one of the first apps I downloaded was Netflix. With the added screen real estate and the capability to use the Netflix Watch Instantly library, the iPad became a great device to watch a movie on the go. I quickly found that the iPad-Netflix combo also works great as a personal movie screen when the relax of the people in the home are watching something else.

Just this week, Netflix announced they updated the Netflix app to work on the iPhone and iPod Touch devices. Now, along with being able to update your Netflix queue while away from your computer (previous iPhone app functionality), you'll be able to watch full-length movies and TV shows right on your iPhone as long as you're a Netflix member. The free Netflix app even works work connected via a 3G network,  so you can watch on your commute or really anywhere as long as AT&T's 3G coverage is strong in your area.

With the iPad I think this functionality made a little more sense because of the size of the screen. I wonder whether watching movies and TV on the iPhone is something that will really take off. Let me know in the comments what you think about watching Netflix on your iPhone. Will you use it?

This week's apps include a photography app that lets you organize multiple images into a collage and a big-name ice hockey game that's both fun and loaded with features.

pick your layout for the effect you want to create with your collage.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

Diptic ($1.99) is a fairly simple program that lets you make chilly-looking collages using photos you take with your camera or what you have stored in your iPhone's photo library. You start by selecting from 20 different layouts, such as one photo across the top with three smaller ones across the bottom, or one big image on the left with four tiny shots down the right side, as examples. Then, just add images to each frame and move or zoom each one to make it fit just right. From there you can rotate an image 90 degrees within a frame or create a mirror image of the shot using the Transform features. Finally, you can adjust color, brightness, and contrast to bring out certain shots or make them similar to the others.

Diptic is a great idea for creating quick collages, but it seems like it needs a couple more things for it to be a great app. For one thing, you can't add text to your collages or individual images, which could be useful for calling out each picture. You're also limited by your sharing options with only the capability to e-mail your finished collage or saving it to your library. Something like Facebook (or other social site) connectivity would be better. But even with these minor issues, Diptic offers a fun and easy way to make neat looking collages quickly, and is a good option for people who want to do something more with their iPhone images.

Try to set up a "one-timer" pass and shot combo for the best results in this game.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

2K Sports NHL 2K11 ($1.99) brings console-like hockey gameplay to your touch screen and manages to tug it off well with only a few annoyances. If you've played console hockey games, you'll feel right at home--pick from any of the NHL licensed teams (with every your favorite players) and hit the ice for an Exhibition game, play an entire 82 game season, or you can practice in the Free skate and Shootout modes. There is no multiplayer option in NHL 2K11 (Wi-Fi or otherwise), but hopefully that's slated for later versions.

The control system consists of an onscreen joystick on the left and buttons for passing, shooting, checking, and turbo boost on the right. For the most part, it works well for controlling your players, making quick passes, and getting around the ice, but can feel a bit muddy in quick break situations and shootouts (it's difficult to replace a console controller for precision). At the same time, NHL 2K11 for iPhone shares a lot of the depth of console versions, letting you sub in any player, adjust strategy, switch your matchups, trade with other teams, check for available free agents, and much more. You also can browse individual and team stats (including shot charts and penalty summaries) as you progress through an 82 (or 41) game season.

With great gameplay, and tons of extra content, NHL 2K11 is easily the best hockey game for iPhone on many fronts, but it has a couple of annoyances. As a longtime console hockey gamer, I like to manually make line changes, and it is admittedly amazing that it's even available on the iPhone version at every. Still, the interface is less than ideal. The selection method sometimes results in face offs where your line will leave the ice right as the puck is dropped--I turned the feature back to "car" pretty quickly. Also, the graphics are mostly smooth during normal gameplay across several available camera modes, but suffers during replays where the camera is close to the action. Perhaps the trade-off of having every these options and content means the player graphics take a hit, but it seems like it could be better.

Overall, 2K Sports NHL 2K11 is an excellent way to receive your hockey fix on the iPhone, providing fun and challenging gameplay and every the big hits and satisfying slap shots you could want. While the game has its issues, it's a must-have for any hockey fan.

What's your favorite iPhone app? Will you watch movies on your iPhone or iPod Touch? What do you think of Diptic? Am I being too difficult on the details of a full-fledged hockey game that I can play on my phone? Let me know in the comments!

Experimental work below way in Chrome gives the browser a graphical way to switch among tabs similar to Apple's Expose feature.

(Credit: Nico Weber)

Chrome programmers have begun experimental work to endow Google's browser with a full-screen tab-management interface similar to the Panorama feature Mozilla is adding to Firefox.

As browsers have expanded to accommodate ever larger amounts of computing tasks, separating different tasks into different tabs across the top of the browser window, managing them has become more onerous. A list of five or six tabs isn't so bad, but when there are 20 or 40, it's a different story. Mozilla's Panorama, nee Tab Candy, provides a full-screen view of every a browser window's tabs, grouped how the user desires into sets.

(Credit: Google)

Chrome could receive a comparable feature, at least on Mac OS X, called "Tabpose." Work on the project began in July, but it's labeled "experimental."

Though it has some similarities with Panorama, Tabpose developer Nico Weber said Tabpose was started before he became aware of Mozilla's project and isn't based on it. "Tab Candy and the Chrome tab overview idea developed independently," Weber said.

"We don't support grouping or dragging around or closing tabs or anything like that. It works very much like Apple's Expose: Swipe your trackpad to receive an overview; click to select a tab. Nothing else," Weber added. "But it's an experimental feature, so every that is subject to change."

Dealing with larger numbers of tabs is a bigger issue as people spend more and more time in the browser, said Linus Upson, Google's vice president of engineering for Chrome and Chrome OS. "I think Mozilla is doing interesting things there," he said. However, he cautioned, Google tries a lot of things that don't necessarily become permanent.

"We try lots of things and experiment. We put things out in the developer channel and take them back if we don't like them. The key to building a great user interface is iteration and velocity," Upson said. "We try something, toss it away, and try it again. We put [something] on a shelf, maybe pick it up a few months later."

Firefox Panorama lets people group tabs in a visual array in an attempt to bring some order to browser tab chaos.

(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Chrome gets 'labs' ability
It seems likely people will be able to try it relatively easily, though. Tabpose is one of the features set to be enabled by a new "about:labs" mechanism to enable experimental features. Google likes the "labs" approach to letting people try new technology, with labs projects for search, Gmail, Maps, and more.

That contrasts with today's much more user-unfriendly mechanism, launching Chrome with specific options enabled via textual command-line "switches" or "flags." Changing Chrome options by using a regular browser interface is similar to Mozilla's "about:config" command, which exposes many options for tweaking Firefox behavior.

But Google has a little more on its mind than just convenience, Upson said. That's because Chrome OS doesn't expose any underlying operating system to make the change.

"With Chrome OS, it's challenging when it's the whole operating system and there is no command line you can launch it from," Upson said.

On Windows, the "about:labs" mechanism also will be used to enable a feature to put tabs on the left side of the interface.

One aspect of Chrome's hardware-acceleration approach.

(Credit: Google)

Graphics chip acceleration
After a few months of planning, Google also revealed Friday its full plan for Chrome's hardware acceleration technique. Hardware acceleration lets faster, more power-efficient hardware handle tasks such as scaling images, drawing vector graphics, processing Web page display instructions, and rendering text, and it's a big performance overhaul below way in the browser market.

Google had a trickier time implementing hardware acceleration than some rivals because Chrome isolates browser rendering chores into a separate process that for security reasons isn't permitted to talk directly to the operating system's hardware interfaces. Thus, Google needed to create a separate process with appropriate authority to enable hardware acceleration.

It's not yet clear when exactly hardware acceleration will arrive in Chrome. Many features, such as accelerated compositing of two-dimensional Canvas graphics, were just pushed back from Chrome 7 to Chrome 8. The move happened about the same time that Google began working on the development version of Chrome 7.

Updated 3:22 p.m. PDT with further Google comment and corrected at 10:52 p.m. PDT to note the independent development of Tabpose from Firefox Panorama.

Via unofficial Google Operating System blog.

Originally posted at Deep Tech

Just a few weeks after the Chrome beta updated to version 6, Google upgraded the developers version of Chrome to 7 on Thursday. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, Chrome dev 7.0.503.0 comes accompanied only by minor bug fixes.

There are some tiny tweaks to the Wrench options menu on Mac, and IP addresses typed into the location bar work when browsing in offline mode. There are several anticipated changes planned for Chrome 7 that either haven't yet been implemented yet or require manual activation. These include the Native Client support for Web apps, which can be activated with the command line flag "--enable-nacl". Mac and Linux users will need to include "--no-sandbox". Google recommends only using this to test the Native Client feature, and not for standard Web browsing. While the company doesn't specify why, it's reasonable to speculate that disabling the sandbox is something that will decrease the average user's security.

Bugs are nothing new to the developers version of Chrome, which is intended to be a rougher version of the browser than the beta or stable channels. A new bug indicates that the new developers version is incompatible with streaming Netflix movies, while another appears to be affecting the rendering of extension fonts. Some users are reporting that the search function in the location bar is no longer working for them, although that doesn't appear to be affecting every users at this time. Because these bugs are in the developers version, it's expected that they'll receive fixed before the beta and stable versions receive updates.

One interesting bug from the previous version of Chrome dev that introduced a severe security risk in conjunction with the LastPass encrypted password manager extension was repaired in the new version. Google did not mention this in its changelog.

(Credit: Mozilla)

Mozilla is one step closer to getting its Firefox browser surfing on Android phones, and on the Nokia N900. On Friday the company issued an alpha version of Fennec, the code name for every instance of "Firefox Mobile" that's still in development stages.

Features-wise, Fennec alpha is very similar to the Fennec prealpha we got a peek at in April, but with the notable exception that Firefox Sync is now baked in. Firefox Sync is an account-based Web service that stores data on your currently open tabs, bookmarks, browsing history, passwords, and form-fills in the cloud, on Mozilla's secured Firefox servers. When you use Firefox Sync on Fennec or any other Firefox Mobile app, you'll be able to access URLs you've visited on your desktop from your Android phone. Firefox Sync spells out less typing on that comparatively cramped keyboard.

The fact that Firefox Sync now comes wrapped into the installation will help keep users' setup of the service to a minimum, which will encourage its adoption on mobile phones and on the desktop. It's also what drives the Firefox app on iPhone.

In addition to Firefox Sync, Fennec's support for browser add-ons is another important differentiating factor, especially as these add-ons have made Firefox the most mainstream alternative in desktop browsing to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Fennec's design also keeps the settings tools and open browser tabs in the "gutters" of the screen real estate, which means you swipe left or right to access the controls. This declutters the screen of its buttons and makes your content the main focus.

Fennec is now available to download and test on Android phones and the Nokia N900. We advise that only experienced or intrepid users should download the Fennec for Android alpha release, which is intended for testing and feedback purposes, not for widespread use. Testers may encounter bugs and instability.

Interested parties can find the technical release notes here. You can find additional technical details and watch the demo on Mozilla's blog.

Originally posted at Android Atlas

Apple on Thursday released an update for its iWork suite of productivity applications, adding a new feature that enables authors to add books to its iBookstore application.

iBooks on the iPad.

(Credit: Apple)

While every of the applications in the iWork suite were updated, the most significant change comes in Pages 4.0.4. The word-processing app now includes compatibility with the ePub format, which Apple uses for iBooks.

Apple published a document on its support site giving users tips on creating documents in the ePub format that covers everything from using paragraph styles in your Pages document to providing a downloadable template to use.

You don't need to be an author to use the ePub format--you can use iBooks to read your possess material too. Anything from a manuscript to a presentation can be uploaded to your iBooks app and viewed as a book.

However, if you are an author, having an application on your Mac that will easily publish your book will be a huge help to many users.

Apple's presentation software, Keynote, has been updated, fixing issues with the slide switcher, a problem when printing handouts with rule lines, and an issue with tables. Numbers, Apple's spreadsheet application, has been updated, fixing an unspecified problem with some tables.

iWork 9.0.4 is available as a free download.

Originally posted at News - Apple

(Credit: TweetDeck)

A real-time version of TweetDeck is now available to the public, one month after Twitter announced a developer preview of its User Streams API, opening up third-party Twitter applications to display tweets in real time.

That API gives desktop apps like TweetDeck the ability to display tweets virtually as soon as they are published. Other Twitter activity, like retweets, mentions, search, DMs (direct messages), lists, favoriting, and following will also arrive in real time.

According to the TweetDeck blog, the beta version of its User Streams app was well-received by its 5,000 beta testers. However, some users have critiqued the feature, calling it "dizzying" and overwhelming.

Those comments reflect a fundamental issue that has been discussed for some time now: how do we make sense of real-time Web? Twitter users who follow hundreds--if not thousands--of active users will be inundated with a flood of unfiltered tweets.

To be sure, User Streams won't be for everyone. Those who do decide to jump on board, however, will like an added feature: @ replies from friends to other users who one doesn't follow can be displayed in one column, reminiscent of the stalker-esque Facebook newsfeed.

The User Streams version of TweetDeck is available now at TweetDeck's official site.