Windows only Windows 8 will usher in a new version of Windows Explorer that is polished up with the Ribbon interface, which is something users tend to either love or hate.
Windows only I've never been a very big fan of desktop word processors because they are often designed poorly since their primary focus is on competing with Microsoft Word. I came across one a few days ago though that has a wide range of features and is easily one of the best designed word processors I've seen.
In Firefox you've always been able to assign a keyword to any bookmark, which would take you to that particular site if you type the keyword in the address bar and press Enter. That's nice and all, but once you get a large number of shortcuts it can be tough to remember them all.
Last week Wolfram Alpha launched, and I immediately started playing around with it. Like every other search engine Wolfram focuses on being able to take your input and try to return the data you're looking for, but don't expect it to grab results like those you find at Google.
I've been waiting to see what Opera had in store for us in version 10, and it looks like everyone is finally getting a peak. In fact I'm a bit surprised by what has been revealed so far, but in a good way. For awhile it seemed like other browsers were trying to find their own ways to adopt features that were first introduced in Opera, but the opposite never really happened.
It was almost one year ago that we first got a glimpse of what Firefox Mobile looked like running on the Nokia N800. Then in January we saw some mockups of what their iPhone-like interface might look like for other devices, and even more recently we saw a video demonstration that knocked our socks off with an intuitive tab navigation system.
It seems like just yesterday Firefox 3.0 was released, and here we sit with the first Alpha release of Firefox 3.1 in our lap. This new release is supposed to reach final form towards the end of the year, but until that time comes there will be plenty of pre-release versions (like this one) that you can tinker with.
Now that Mozilla has shipped Firefox 3.0 they have begun working on the next milestone that's due out at the end of 2008. Firefox 3.1 Alpha (code named Shiretoko) is should be released on July 25th according to ZDNet, and the first Beta is expected as early as August.
One of the the most frequent comments I hear from new Ubuntu users is that the default theme for the operating system is a tad too brown. I kind of like the current Ubuntu theme, but it was supposed to get an overhaul with the last release. The new default theme has got pushed back to Ubuntu 8.10, and we're getting our first glimpse of the new theme now that Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 1 has shipped.
It's been a long time coming, but it looks as though we might have our first full-fledged desktop feed reader that supports synchronization with Google Reader. The RSS Bandit blog announced over the weekend that they have released version 1.7 Alpha that is capable of downloading podcasts as well as synchronizing feeds with Google Reader.
I can't say that I was expecting this today, but I'm happy to report that Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0 Alpha 1 (codenamed Shredder) has been released. This version does of course have tabs, and as seen in the screenshot above you can open new messages in tabs for easy navigation. That's definitely a feature I've been waiting for, but now I wish you could actually compose a message in a new tab as well.
Opera Dragonfly is here, and as expected it is a new set of tools to help developers create functional websites. It's obvious that the Opera team wanted to develop something to draw developers to their browser, much like how Firebug has become an irreplaceable tool for the developers that use Firefox. The real question is whether Dragonfly is the tool we've been longing for?
I was starting to become skeptical as to whether it was possible to have an Aero Glass theme for Firefox much like that of Internet Explorer 7, but there is now proof that it can be done. One top-notch developer took it upon himself to create an extension that would create a fancy eye-catching interface . The result is the Glasser extension.
There's a new app on the block, and it looks as though it may have a very promising future. The open source Spicebird project has its first Alpha release coming up soon, and to tease us they've posted a video of what to expect. We've outlined all of the features demonstrated in the video below, and provided screenshots from each important aspect of the program.
I've got a lot of news to share about Ubuntu, and instead of doing several different posts about it all I thought it would be better to aggregate the info into one convenient article. Prepare your minds for Ubuntu overload!
Launchy is one of the best application launchers available, and it is about to get a lot better with version 2 that is right around the corner. Just today Launchy 2.0 Alpha 8 was quietly released in the Launchy forum, and I've been using previous Alpha's for over a week. Despite being early in the development process it is incredibly stable.
We weren't exactly sure whether the next milestone in the Firefox 3 pre-release lifecycle was going to be an Alpha or a Beta, but we know now.
One of the most notable features in the new Opera 9.5 Alpha is synchronization with your free My Opera account. All of your bookmarks, Speed Dial entries, Personal Bar items, and panels are sent to a remote server in Oslo, Norway. You can then access them from any number of computers that you have Opera 9.5 installed on.
Late last night Microsoft announced that they had released Silverlight 1.0, and to mark the occasion they also said that Linux support would be coming soon.
Word quickly got around that Opera 9.5 Alpha was making its big debut today, and I think it's time we start our Alpha Addicts Anonymous (AAA) sessions to help cope with our pre-release addictions! The Opera team has delivered on its promise of an early Alpha build for the next major milestone codenamed Kestrel.
