eBay offers 50 free listings a month for all
eBay is to give 50 free listings a month to all users, from April, in a bid to tempt sellers back to the site.The once-dominant auction site, which has seen its market share damaged by the Amazon Marketplace in recent years, will also charge lower commission on items sold by the site from July.
That means eBay will only charge sellers a portion of the fee they receive from the sale and dismiss the smaller listing fee that it had previously taken, regardless of whether the item sold or not.
The California-based company will also encourage merchants to offer free shipping to customers by charging a higher commission to those who charge buyers to have their items delivered.
Vice President Todd Lutwak said: "We think these changes will really improve the marketplace for both buyers and sellers. We're listening to our customers. We're trying to understand their needs."
Fightback
The latest effort to boost site activity is part of a three year plan to recoup the losses eBay has made to Amazon and other online retailers.
The perception is that still Amazon is a much more trustworthy and convenient means of buying and selling goods as it takes care of the transactions and lessens direct contact between buyer and seller.
To help customers keep track of multiple items eBay has also retooled the site with a shopping basket which makes things a little more straightforward than the trusty old watch list.
A+++++++, 5* updates, eBay! We might use again!
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Google revamps iOS search app
Google has given its iOS search app a much-needed overhaul, adding a host of new features, Google Apps integration and a new and improved design.Web queries can now be conducted via voice search or image search through Google Goggles, while users can now sign into their accounts for interaction for services that require a login.
Before today's update, iPhone, iPod touch and iPad owners only had access to mobile web searches in Safari rather than a self-contained application.
Google Apps
Upon opening the app users are now greeted with a url search bar and an apps tab. That summons a list of available Google apps like Docs, Calendar, Buzz, News, YouTube and the rest of the suite.
The menu will even show you how many unread messages or notifications you have in apps like Gmail and Buzz. Apps will load either in Safari or through the many standalone apps available in the App Store, such as Google Maps, Google Earth and Google Voice.
Web searches improved
The web searches themselves remain within the Google Search app, and a simple swipe to the right reveals a tap for limiting your search to images, videos, shopping and the usual host of options.
Once you've conducted your web search, it's easy to return to the app's homescreen by swiping down from the top of the screen. Simples.
While long overdue, this is a fine update from Google, which really shows off the massive array of apps that the company is currently offering.
We'd like to see a lot more native iOS apps to accompany this improvement so we wouldn't have to use mobile web versions of Gmail and Calendar in the Safari Browser.
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T-Mobile partners with Groupon for آ£49 iPad deal
T-Mobile has announced that it is teaming up with Groupon to offer the first-gen Apple iPad for just آ£49 on a آ£25 a month 24-month contract.The deal is the first of its kind for a mobile network and it will be restricted to the first 1,000 customers.
There is a caveat, which is that the price of the contract rises to آ£27 a month if you are not already an existing T-Mobile customer.
24-hour deal
T-Mobile's original iPad deal begins 16 March, with the deal going live on www.groupon.co.uk at 00:01hrs. And you have to be quick as it is only going to last for 24 hours.
According to T-Mobile, "Customers will be emailed a web sales number, which they will then need to call and quote the Groupon voucher code. The order will then be processed by T-Mobile and the iPad dispatched to the customer."
There have been a number of discount iPad deals of late, considering the iPad 2 UK release date is 25 March.
Check out our iPad 2 review, to see if you are tempted by the next gen, or would be happy to get a discounted old iPad.
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Vodafone to sell the iPad 2
Vodafone has announced that it will be selling the iPad 2 in the UK. Although the red network hasn't revealed any details about pricing, launch date or, well, anything else, the mere fact that it will offer the iPad 2 is enough to get us interested.
Vodafone joins T-Mobile and Orange in offering the lust-worthy tablet, but O2 will not be selling the device itself.
Micro-SIMulant
O2 is sticking to micro-SIMs and iPad tariffs, so you'll have to pick up the slate from elsewhere.
The iPad 2 UK release date is 25 March, but there's no guarantee we'll see it hit the networks on the same day, with Vodafone simply listing it as 'Coming Soon'.
Whether or not Vodafone, T-Mobile and Orange will offer subsidised tablets from day one also remains to be seen.
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Vodafone to sell the iPad 2
Vodafone has announced that it will be selling the iPad 2 in the UK. Although the red network hasn't revealed any details about pricing, launch date or, well, anything else, the mere fact that it will offer the iPad 2 is enough to get us interested.
Vodafone joins T-Mobile and Orange in offering the lust-worthy tablet, but O2 will not be selling the device itself.
Micro-SIMulant
O2 is sticking to micro-SIMs and iPad tariffs, so you'll have to pick up the slate from elsewhere.
The iPad 2 UK release date is 25 March, but there's no guarantee we'll see it hit the networks on the same day, with Vodafone simply listing it as 'Coming Soon'.
Whether or not Vodafone, T-Mobile and Orange will offer subsidised tablets from day one also remains to be seen.
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T-Mobile partners with Groupon for آ£49 iPad deal
T-Mobile has announced that it is teaming up with Groupon to offer the first-gen Apple iPad for just آ£49 on a آ£25 a month 24-month contract.The deal is the first of its kind for a mobile network and it will be restricted to the first 1,000 customers.
There is a caveat, which is that the price of the contract rises to آ£27 a month if you are not already an existing T-Mobile customer.
24-hour deal
T-Mobile's original iPad deal begins 16 March, with the deal going live on www.groupon.co.uk at 00:01hrs. And you have to be quick as it is only going to last for 24 hours.
According to T-Mobile, "Customers will be emailed a web sales number, which they will then need to call and quote the Groupon voucher code. The order will then be processed by T-Mobile and the iPad dispatched to the customer."
There have been a number of discount iPad deals of late, considering the iPad 2 UK release date is 25 March.
Check out our iPad 2 review, to see if you are tempted by the next gen, or would be happy to get a discounted old iPad.
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Networks react to lowered termination rates
The UK's mobile networks have reacted to this morning's announcement from Ofcom, where it implemented a cap on the amount that mobile networks can charge for connecting mobile calls from landlines and other network phones.It seems that networks are not happy about being instructed to charge significantly lower amounts than before.
Disappointed
A spokesperson from Vodafone told us: "We are really disappointed that Ofcom has ignored the evidence that termination rate cuts will mean higher costs for pre-pay customers especially at a time when money is tight for many families. We are studying Ofcom's decision and considering all of our options."
Disappointment also abounded on behalf of those 'vulnerable' pre-pay customers at EverythingEverywhere HQ, where a spokesperson said: "We are disappointed with Ofcom's decision and are currently reviewing the detail and our position as to whether we will appeal.
"Our concerns focus on the impact of the decision to our vulnerable pay-as-you-go customers. By applying pure LRIC methodology in setting call termination rates going forward, Ofcom has suggested we recover a larger share of our costs from retail charges.
"This may force us to change the pay-as-you-go model as we know it as a large number of these customers will now become uneconomical – making the way our consumers currently buy, use and enjoy their mobiles radically different going forward."
Deeply disappointed
O2 won the disappointment wars though, with a spokesperson telling us, "O2 is deeply disappointed that Ofcom has chosen to peg O2's mobile termination rate to the 'pure LRIC' cost standard. It results in charges that are too low.
"Ofcom continues to regulate other companies, including BT, on other, more generous cost standards and this is discriminatory.
"Pre-pay mobile customers are likely to be hardest hit by the reductions, and there is scant evidence that BT and other fixed companies will pass the lower costs to their customers."
According to BT, however, it has already said it will be passing on savings to its customers.
An air of disappointment
Three, a key member of the Terminate the Rate campaign which lobbied Ofcom for lower cuts to the termination rates, has been keeping fairly quiet about the whole thing.
A spokesperson for the numerical network told us that it has bigger fish to fry: "Three believes a competition issue of greater importance is at stake now – the auction of radio spectrum on which Ofcom is set to make a decision over the next few weeks."
In response to the other networks' collective disappointment, Three told us it's not all doom and gloom for Vodafone, O2 and EverythingEverywhere: "Termination rates have been coming down for years, and every time the lower pricing begets greater usage and more phone users."
Disappointment and anger
One company that wasn't afraid to say what it thinks while still retaining a bit of disappointment is USwitch. The comparison site banged its fist on the table (metaphorically speaking) as its technology expert Ernest Doku said:
"Consumers have been unwittingly lining the pockets of the mobile phone 'cartel' with billions of pounds. These hidden charges have up until now cost as much as 4p for every minute of every call made.
"It is still disappointing that Ofcom has not taken on board the European Commission's recommendation to reduce these rates in half the time, reaching 0.69p by the end of 2012 instead of 2014.
"Nevertheless, this is a clear victory against the bully boys. While termination rates have served as a tidy revenue for the big networks, the minnows in the market such as Three have struggled to make headway. There's no doubt that this news will really give a boost to competition in the mobile market."
So, essentially, no one is really happy with the new termination rates. It's a hard life, eh Ofcom?
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Networks react to lowered termination rates
The UK's mobile networks have reacted to this morning's announcement from Ofcom, where it implemented a cap on the amount that mobile networks can charge for connecting mobile calls from landlines and other network phones.It seems that networks are not happy about being instructed to charge significantly lower amounts than before.
Disappointed
A spokesperson from Vodafone told us: "We are really disappointed that Ofcom has ignored the evidence that termination rate cuts will mean higher costs for pre-pay customers especially at a time when money is tight for many families. We are studying Ofcom's decision and considering all of our options."
Disappointment also abounded on behalf of those 'vulnerable' pre-pay customers at EverythingEverywhere HQ, where a spokesperson said: "We are disappointed with Ofcom's decision and are currently reviewing the detail and our position as to whether we will appeal.
"Our concerns focus on the impact of the decision to our vulnerable pay-as-you-go customers. By applying pure LRIC methodology in setting call termination rates going forward, Ofcom has suggested we recover a larger share of our costs from retail charges.
"This may force us to change the pay-as-you-go model as we know it as a large number of these customers will now become uneconomical – making the way our consumers currently buy, use and enjoy their mobiles radically different going forward."
Deeply disappointed
O2 won the disappointment wars though, with a spokesperson telling us, "O2 is deeply disappointed that Ofcom has chosen to peg O2's mobile termination rate to the 'pure LRIC' cost standard. It results in charges that are too low.
"Ofcom continues to regulate other companies, including BT, on other, more generous cost standards and this is discriminatory.
"Pre-pay mobile customers are likely to be hardest hit by the reductions, and there is scant evidence that BT and other fixed companies will pass the lower costs to their customers."
According to BT, however, it has already said it will be passing on savings to its customers.
An air of disappointment
Three, a key member of the Terminate the Rate campaign which lobbied Ofcom for lower cuts to the termination rates, has been keeping fairly quiet about the whole thing.
A spokesperson for the numerical network told us that it has bigger fish to fry: "Three believes a competition issue of greater importance is at stake now – the auction of radio spectrum on which Ofcom is set to make a decision over the next few weeks."
In response to the other networks' collective disappointment, Three told us it's not all doom and gloom for Vodafone, O2 and EverythingEverywhere: "Termination rates have been coming down for years, and every time the lower pricing begets greater usage and more phone users."
Disappointment and anger
One company that wasn't afraid to say what it thinks while still retaining a bit of disappointment is USwitch. The comparison site banged its fist on the table (metaphorically speaking) as its technology expert Ernest Doku said:
"Consumers have been unwittingly lining the pockets of the mobile phone 'cartel' with billions of pounds. These hidden charges have up until now cost as much as 4p for every minute of every call made.
"It is still disappointing that Ofcom has not taken on board the European Commission's recommendation to reduce these rates in half the time, reaching 0.69p by the end of 2012 instead of 2014.
"Nevertheless, this is a clear victory against the bully boys. While termination rates have served as a tidy revenue for the big networks, the minnows in the market such as Three have struggled to make headway. There's no doubt that this news will really give a boost to competition in the mobile market."
So, essentially, no one is really happy with the new termination rates. It's a hard life, eh Ofcom?
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Google StreetView website gets major overhaul
Google StreetView has been given a new website, which gives more of an insight into how the technology works and just how much of the world has been pictured by the Google car, trike and snowmobile.The website states: "Explore the world at street level" and shows off highlights of the seven continents that have been visually mapped by StreetView.
Most importantly though, we finally get a little history on the eponymous Pegman.
So, how did he get his name? Well, according to Google: "Pegman's name comes from the fact that he is shaped like a clothes peg."
Er, okay, maybe the history of Pegman isn't that riveting.
Street talk
But we do also get some insight into the transport used by Google.
According to the site, the car was first: "When we first started Street View as an experimental project, we packed several computers into the back of an SUV, stuck cameras, lasers, and a GPS device on top."
The StreetView trike was second: "One day while mountain biking, Mechanical Engineer Dan Ratner realized he could combine his favourite hobby with StreetView to explore new places."
And the snowmobile is the latest vehicle: "In typical Google fashion, [our snowmobile] was put together over the course of a few weekends using some 2x4s, duct tape, and extra hard drives wrapped in ski jackets to last through the freezing conditions."
Google StreetView may be primed for the privacy police to pick apart, but we have to admit that its new website is a decent sneak peek through the Google curtain.
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Google StreetView website gets major overhaul
Google StreetView has been given a new website, which gives more of an insight into how the technology works and just how much of the world has been pictured by the Google car, trike and snowmobile.The website states: "Explore the world at street level" and shows off highlights of the seven continents that have been visually mapped by StreetView.
Most importantly though, we finally get a little history on the eponymous Pegman.
So, how did he get his name? Well, according to Google: "Pegman's name comes from the fact that he is shaped like a clothes peg."
Er, okay, maybe the history of Pegman isn't that riveting.
Street talk
But we do also get some insight into the transport used by Google.
According to the site, the car was first: "When we first started Street View as an experimental project, we packed several computers into the back of an SUV, stuck cameras, lasers, and a GPS device on top."
The StreetView trike was second: "One day while mountain biking, Mechanical Engineer Dan Ratner realized he could combine his favourite hobby with StreetView to explore new places."
And the snowmobile is the latest vehicle: "In typical Google fashion, [our snowmobile] was put together over the course of a few weekends using some 2x4s, duct tape, and extra hard drives wrapped in ski jackets to last through the freezing conditions."
Google StreetView may be primed for the privacy police to pick apart, but we have to admit that its new website is a decent sneak peek through the Google curtain.
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Exclusive: Acer: There's no 'Swiss Army knife' approach for consumers
Forget the post-PC world that Apple reckons we're in, the tablet, smartphone and PC-like device are all must-haves for today's consumer.So says Acer, a company which just so happens to make smartphones, tablets and PC-like devices.
When asked if it's important to Acer to differentiate between its large smartphones and small tablets, Aymar de Lencquesaing, smartphone president at Acer, told TechRadar:
"To a certain extent it doesn't matter because really it depends on usage. If you're creating content, you want a PC. If you want something on you all the time, then it's a smartphone. The tablet is a new proposition; it's fun, it's instant-on and you can take the internet to places where you couldn't use it before."
Pointless fun
He continued, "Even in a tablet you have a different segmentation between the 7-inch and the 10-inch. So the 10-inch device by and large tends to stay in the house. The 7-inch tends to be taken with you because it's more portable.
"Our view is that there's no such thing as a Swiss Army knife approach to these things. You don't have a device that becomes the magical device that does everything for everyone tomorrow; most users will have a minimum probably of three different devices they connect with routinely.
"The 24/7 usage one is the smartphone device, one is the tablet device and one is the PC-like device. Most consumers will end up carrying and having those three devices in their lives."
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Exclusive: Acer: There's no 'Swiss Army knife' approach for consumers
Forget the post-PC world that Apple reckons we're in, the tablet, smartphone and PC-like device are all must-haves for today's consumer.So says Acer, a company which just so happens to make smartphones, tablets and PC-like devices.
When asked if it's important to Acer to differentiate between its large smartphones and small tablets, Aymar de Lencquesaing, smartphone president at Acer, told TechRadar:
"To a certain extent it doesn't matter because really it depends on usage. If you're creating content, you want a PC. If you want something on you all the time, then it's a smartphone. The tablet is a new proposition; it's fun, it's instant-on and you can take the internet to places where you couldn't use it before."
Pointless fun
He continued, "Even in a tablet you have a different segmentation between the 7-inch and the 10-inch. So the 10-inch device by and large tends to stay in the house. The 7-inch tends to be taken with you because it's more portable.
"Our view is that there's no such thing as a Swiss Army knife approach to these things. You don't have a device that becomes the magical device that does everything for everyone tomorrow; most users will have a minimum probably of three different devices they connect with routinely.
"The 24/7 usage one is the smartphone device, one is the tablet device and one is the PC-like device. Most consumers will end up carrying and having those three devices in their lives."
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In Depth: IE9 vs Firefox 4 vs Chrome 10
Cloud computing brought the browser wars back: Microsoft, Google and Mozilla have been rewriting JavaScript engines, improving their support for web standards and improving their user interfaces. The result is the big three's best browsers yet: IE9, Chrome 10 and Firefox 4 RC. So which one deserves a place on your desktop?
IE9 vs Firefox 4 vs Chrome 10: appearance
The trio keep on-screen "chrome" to a minimum and don't look bad at all. From a purely aesthetic point of view IE9 looks nicest, but having everything on one line quickly gets cluttered.
Chrome is stripped back to the point of near invisibility, and Firefox 4 is the prettiest Firefox yet. Yes, that's a bit like saying "the smartest thing Charlie Sheen has ever said" but after years of blocky ugliness the new UI is a vast improvement, and this refined version is starting to grow on us. At least, it is on the PC. The default Mac interface doesn't quite work.
PRETTIER: Firefox's new UI is a dramatic improvement. It doesn't take up much room and it's a nice place to spend time
IE9 vs Firefox 4 vs Chrome 10: speed
Chrome 10 was the slowest on our test PC, running through the SunSpider benchmarks in an average of 346.0ms, with Firefox 4 achieving an average of 308.5. IE9 had the edge, though, with an average of just 288.8ms.
Let's try another one: version 6 of V8, Google's own benchmarking suite. You'd expect Google to do well here, and it did. Bigger numbers are better, and Chrome achieved 7,101 compared to 3,269 for Firefox and 2,053 for IE9.
So far so meh - "Google browser does well in Google benchmark" isn't a surprise - but it does demonstrate how the gaps between browsers are disappearing: in 2008, Chrome would routinely score ten times more than Firefox and IE wouldn't even feature.
One more? Let's give Mozilla's Kraken, the hugely demanding set of web-app tasks based on SunSpider, a go. Firefox powered through the enormous testing suite in 9,224ms and IE9 19,136ms. Firefox in "Mozilla has the best browser on Mozilla benchmarks" shocker? Nope: Chrome was narrowly ahead, coming in at 8,794ms.
It's clear that the browsers have been optimised for their preferred benchmarks, but what about real-world stuff? From hitting enter to finishing loading the TechRadar home page on a 20MBps DSL connection, Chrome took four seconds, Firefox five and IE nine (no pages were cached and we didn't have extensions, add-ons or other goodies installed or blocking content).
Fark.com took four seconds in Firefox, four in Chrome and six in IE. Online banking's login page took two seconds in Chrome, two in Firefox and three in IE.
Let's try something more challenging. Loading and starting to play Radiohead's Lotus Flower video on YouTube was three seconds in Firefox, three in IE and four in Chrome. Opening an existing file and having it ready to edit in Google Docs took four seconds in Firefox, four in Chrome and six in IE9.
There's clearly a pattern here. Firefox and Chrome are generally neck and neck in everyday performance, and IE9 lags narrowly behind. However, there really isn't much in it - and in most cases the ads are the bits that take the time, with pages' text, navigation elements and form fields appearing almost instantly.
IE9 vs Firefox 4 vs Chrome 10: stability and standards
The Acid 3 test is the, er, acid test for standards compliance, and if you'd told us a few years ago we'd be seeing IE get 95/100 we'd have burned you as a witch. But there it is in black and white (and yellow and...).
Firefox is narrowly ahead with 97/100, and Chrome is giving the teacher an apple and getting a gold star for its perfect 100/100 score.
There's more to standards than the Acid test, however. Different browsers support different bits of the HTML5 standards, so for example when it comes to video Chrome doesn't like H.264 - it prefers its own WebM video or Ogg Theora, which are the favourite formats of Firefox, too - whereas IE9 likes H.264 very, very much.
VIDEO SUPPORT: All three browsers are HTML5 friendly, but they support different video formats: Chrome and Firefox are playing WebM here while IE9 gets H.264
Video, of course, is a notorious browser crasher, so it's nice to have Chrome and IE9's ability to split individual tabs into different processes. This prevents a malfunctioning plug-in from wrecking the whole browser session, and makes it easy to kill misbehaving tabs.
Firefox has crash protection but it's still a one-process browser, so something going wrong in one tab could still affect everything else.
BACK AGAIN: IE9 can recover from crashes and unexpected shutdowns just like Firefox, although we wish the notification was more prominent
IE9 vs Firefox 4 vs Chrome 10: features
Firefox has the edge here: its pinnable App Tabs tuck away opened tabs such as email and web apps, while Tab Groups make it easy to organise large collections of open pages.
Firefox 4 also boasts some excellent synchronisation features. It doesn't just sync your bookmarks across devices; it takes your history and even your currently open tabs. If you're constantly moving from machine to machine you'll love this feature. Chrome has synchronisation too, but it doesn't extend to open tabs.
IN SYNC: Firefox and Chrome both have excellent browser synchronisation systems. To do it in IE9 you need a third-party extension
IE9 doesn't have syncing at all, but it does enable you to pin sites to the Windows 7 taskbar as if they were applications and drag a tab out to Snap it for viewing side by side with another. You also get a proper download manager, which Firefox has had since about 1957.
There's also a Chrome-style new tab page and Chrome-style searching in the address bar. Firefox retains the two-box approach, with the Awesome Bar for URLs and history and a separate search box - although confusingly, the Awesome Bar does search too.
EXTEND IE: It doesn't have the sheer range of Firefox's add-ons, but IE has enough available extensions to cover the essentials
Firefox is the most expandable here but Chrome is catching up fast, its Chrome Extensions and web apps becoming increasingly impressive. All three browsers' add-on galleries cover the basics - ad blocking, Flash blocking, Twitter clients and so on - but Internet Explorer's is the most limited. Firefox and Chrome are also skinnable, enabling you to change their default appearance.
IE9 vs Firefox 4 vs Chrome 10: verdict
You can prove pretty much anything with benchmarks, and while Internet Explorer did best in SunSpider it felt the slowest in real-word use. It's a really nice browser, though, and if you're the kind of user who doesn't really bother with extensions or fiddling around, you'll be perfectly happy with it. It does lag slightly behind its rivals in real world speed, but on a decent PC there's not much in it.
Firefox and Chrome were neck and neck in the performance stakes: on paper Chrome bests Mozilla's browser, but in practice the differences are insignificant. However, Chrome's ability to split tabs into individual processes should make it the more stable - although at the time of writing there seems to be a horrible bug in its handling of Flash.
KEEP APART: Tab Groups in Firefox make it easy to separate business and pleasure, or to keep different tasks separate
Do we have a winner? Firefox's Tab Groups and App Tabs are brilliant, and the browser's Swiss Army Knife reputation remains intact. If you use a lot of tabs and need lots of extensions then Firefox is the browser for you; if you're spending all day in a few web apps and your need for add-ons begins and ends with ad-blocking, then Google is your friend - or at least it will be once the Flash problem is fixed.
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In Depth: IE9 vs Firefox 4 vs Chrome 10
Cloud computing brought the browser wars back: Microsoft, Google and Mozilla have been rewriting JavaScript engines, improving their support for web standards and improving their user interfaces. The result is the big three's best browsers yet: IE9, Chrome 10 and Firefox 4 RC. So which one deserves a place on your desktop?
IE9 vs Firefox 4 vs Chrome 10: appearance
The trio keep on-screen "chrome" to a minimum and don't look bad at all. From a purely aesthetic point of view IE9 looks nicest, but having everything on one line quickly gets cluttered.
Chrome is stripped back to the point of near invisibility, and Firefox 4 is the prettiest Firefox yet. Yes, that's a bit like saying "the smartest thing Charlie Sheen has ever said" but after years of blocky ugliness the new UI is a vast improvement, and this refined version is starting to grow on us. At least, it is on the PC. The default Mac interface doesn't quite work.
PRETTIER: Firefox's new UI is a dramatic improvement. It doesn't take up much room and it's a nice place to spend time
IE9 vs Firefox 4 vs Chrome 10: speed
Chrome 10 was the slowest on our test PC, running through the SunSpider benchmarks in an average of 346.0ms, with Firefox 4 achieving an average of 308.5. IE9 had the edge, though, with an average of just 288.8ms.
Let's try another one: version 6 of V8, Google's own benchmarking suite. You'd expect Google to do well here, and it did. Bigger numbers are better, and Chrome achieved 7,101 compared to 3,269 for Firefox and 2,053 for IE9.
So far so meh - "Google browser does well in Google benchmark" isn't a surprise - but it does demonstrate how the gaps between browsers are disappearing: in 2008, Chrome would routinely score ten times more than Firefox and IE wouldn't even feature.
One more? Let's give Mozilla's Kraken, the hugely demanding set of web-app tasks based on SunSpider, a go. Firefox powered through the enormous testing suite in 9,224ms and IE9 19,136ms. Firefox in "Mozilla has the best browser on Mozilla benchmarks" shocker? Nope: Chrome was narrowly ahead, coming in at 8,794ms.
It's clear that the browsers have been optimised for their preferred benchmarks, but what about real-world stuff? From hitting enter to finishing loading the TechRadar home page on a 20MBps DSL connection, Chrome took four seconds, Firefox five and IE nine (no pages were cached and we didn't have extensions, add-ons or other goodies installed or blocking content).
Fark.com took four seconds in Firefox, four in Chrome and six in IE. Online banking's login page took two seconds in Chrome, two in Firefox and three in IE.
Let's try something more challenging. Loading and starting to play Radiohead's Lotus Flower video on YouTube was three seconds in Firefox, three in IE and four in Chrome. Opening an existing file and having it ready to edit in Google Docs took four seconds in Firefox, four in Chrome and six in IE9.
There's clearly a pattern here. Firefox and Chrome are generally neck and neck in everyday performance, and IE9 lags narrowly behind. However, there really isn't much in it - and in most cases the ads are the bits that take the time, with pages' text, navigation elements and form fields appearing almost instantly.
IE9 vs Firefox 4 vs Chrome 10: stability and standards
The Acid 3 test is the, er, acid test for standards compliance, and if you'd told us a few years ago we'd be seeing IE get 95/100 we'd have burned you as a witch. But there it is in black and white (and yellow and...).
Firefox is narrowly ahead with 97/100, and Chrome is giving the teacher an apple and getting a gold star for its perfect 100/100 score.
There's more to standards than the Acid test, however. Different browsers support different bits of the HTML5 standards, so for example when it comes to video Chrome doesn't like H.264 - it prefers its own WebM video or Ogg Theora, which are the favourite formats of Firefox, too - whereas IE9 likes H.264 very, very much.
VIDEO SUPPORT: All three browsers are HTML5 friendly, but they support different video formats: Chrome and Firefox are playing WebM here while IE9 gets H.264
Video, of course, is a notorious browser crasher, so it's nice to have Chrome and IE9's ability to split individual tabs into different processes. This prevents a malfunctioning plug-in from wrecking the whole browser session, and makes it easy to kill misbehaving tabs.
Firefox has crash protection but it's still a one-process browser, so something going wrong in one tab could still affect everything else.
BACK AGAIN: IE9 can recover from crashes and unexpected shutdowns just like Firefox, although we wish the notification was more prominent
IE9 vs Firefox 4 vs Chrome 10: features
Firefox has the edge here: its pinnable App Tabs tuck away opened tabs such as email and web apps, while Tab Groups make it easy to organise large collections of open pages.
Firefox 4 also boasts some excellent synchronisation features. It doesn't just sync your bookmarks across devices; it takes your history and even your currently open tabs. If you're constantly moving from machine to machine you'll love this feature. Chrome has synchronisation too, but it doesn't extend to open tabs.
IN SYNC: Firefox and Chrome both have excellent browser synchronisation systems. To do it in IE9 you need a third-party extension
IE9 doesn't have syncing at all, but it does enable you to pin sites to the Windows 7 taskbar as if they were applications and drag a tab out to Snap it for viewing side by side with another. You also get a proper download manager, which Firefox has had since about 1957.
There's also a Chrome-style new tab page and Chrome-style searching in the address bar. Firefox retains the two-box approach, with the Awesome Bar for URLs and history and a separate search box - although confusingly, the Awesome Bar does search too.
EXTEND IE: It doesn't have the sheer range of Firefox's add-ons, but IE has enough available extensions to cover the essentials
Firefox is the most expandable here but Chrome is catching up fast, its Chrome Extensions and web apps becoming increasingly impressive. All three browsers' add-on galleries cover the basics - ad blocking, Flash blocking, Twitter clients and so on - but Internet Explorer's is the most limited. Firefox and Chrome are also skinnable, enabling you to change their default appearance.
IE9 vs Firefox 4 vs Chrome 10: verdict
You can prove pretty much anything with benchmarks, and while Internet Explorer did best in SunSpider it felt the slowest in real-word use. It's a really nice browser, though, and if you're the kind of user who doesn't really bother with extensions or fiddling around, you'll be perfectly happy with it. It does lag slightly behind its rivals in real world speed, but on a decent PC there's not much in it.
Firefox and Chrome were neck and neck in the performance stakes: on paper Chrome bests Mozilla's browser, but in practice the differences are insignificant. However, Chrome's ability to split tabs into individual processes should make it the more stable - although at the time of writing there seems to be a horrible bug in its handling of Flash.
KEEP APART: Tab Groups in Firefox make it easy to separate business and pleasure, or to keep different tasks separate
Do we have a winner? Firefox's Tab Groups and App Tabs are brilliant, and the browser's Swiss Army Knife reputation remains intact. If you use a lot of tabs and need lots of extensions then Firefox is the browser for you; if you're spending all day in a few web apps and your need for add-ons begins and ends with ad-blocking, then Google is your friend - or at least it will be once the Flash problem is fixed.
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10-inch HTC Flyer tablet coming soon?
HTC could be about to unleash a 10-inch HTC Flyer on an unsuspecting world, if a leaked screengrab of a Staples training programme is anything to go by. The stationery retailer's US training programme lists a number of tablets from various manufacturers, among them this mysterious HTC tablet with a 10-inch screen, listed as 'HTC 10"'.
The tablet will launch running Android Honeycomb, according to the training system, and is 'coming soon'.
How soon is soon?
Of course, there's not a lot to go on and there's a definite chance we're looking at a Staples typo here – or a bit of wishful thinking from the training manager.
As usual, HTC chose not to comment on rumour and speculation but with the HTC Flyer coming in at just 7-inches, we wouldn't be surprised to see a larger model on the cards.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 is also included in the inventory; we're expecting to see this slinky tablet make its debut at a Samsung event 22 March.
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Read More ...
10-inch HTC Flyer tablet coming soon?
HTC could be about to unleash a 10-inch HTC Flyer on an unsuspecting world, if a leaked screengrab of a Staples training programme is anything to go by. The stationery retailer's US training programme lists a number of tablets from various manufacturers, among them this mysterious HTC tablet with a 10-inch screen, listed as 'HTC 10"'.
The tablet will launch running Android Honeycomb, according to the training system, and is 'coming soon'.
How soon is soon?
Of course, there's not a lot to go on and there's a definite chance we're looking at a Staples typo here – or a bit of wishful thinking from the training manager.
As usual, HTC chose not to comment on rumour and speculation but with the HTC Flyer coming in at just 7-inches, we wouldn't be surprised to see a larger model on the cards.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 is also included in the inventory; we're expecting to see this slinky tablet make its debut at a Samsung event 22 March.
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