Scooopy – Scoops about Gadget, Mobile & Technology
Posts tagged Software
WordPress 2.9.1 RC 1 is now available
Dec 30th
WordPress 2.9.1 Release Candidate 1 is now available because the recent 2.9 release triggered a bug in certain versions of PHP’s curl extension. With these versions of curl, scheduled posts and pingbacks are not processed correctly. To fix this problem as well as a handful of other, lesser issues, WordPress Dev Team Members are quickly releasing 2.9.1, the first maintenance release of the 2.9 line.
RC1 contains a few more fixes, bringing the number of fixed tickets up to 23. If you are already running Beta 1, visit Tools->Upgrade in your blog’s admin to get RC1. You can also download the RC1 package and install manually.
WordPress 2.9.1 Beta 1 is now available
Dec 27th
WordPress 2.9.1 Beta 1 is now available because the recent 2.9 release triggered a bug in certain versions of PHP’s curl extension. With these versions of curl, scheduled posts and pingbacks are not processed correctly. To fix this problem as well as a handful of other, lesser issues, WordPress Dev Team Members are quickly releasing 2.9.1, the first maintenance release of the 2.9 line.
The easiest way to test Beta 1 is to install the WordPress Beta Tester plugin, elect to get on the point release development track, and then perform an automatic upgrade via the Tools->Upgrade menu. You can also download the Beta 1 package and install manually. Fourteen tickets have been fixed in 2.9.1 Beta 1. The curl problem and a couple of other problems are dependent on specific hosting configurations.
Opera 10.5 pre-alpha is now available
Dec 23rd
Opera 10.5 pre-alpha is now available for downloading & testing.
What’s new
Inside
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Carakan
Carakan is our new JavaScript engine. It’s fast, more than 7x faster in SunSpider than Opera 10.10 with Futhark on Windows (Mac optimization is not as far along). You can read more gritty details regarding register-based bytecode, automatic object classification and native code generation in the Opera Core blog.
SunSpider Javascript Benchmark (runs per minute)
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Presto 2.5
We are now using Presto 2.5, which contains a huge numbers of improvements. It also includes support for CSS3 transitions and transforms, and more HTML5 features like persistent storage.
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Vega
Vega is our new graphics library. It’s currently software based and displays everything you see on-screen. Vega can be hardware accelerated, but as you can see from the complex graphics benchmark in Peacekeeper, we don’t seem to need it yet. (Note that Futuremarks Peacekeeper test does no include the results of their complex graphics tests in the overall score. We believe this is wrong in 2009 and will simply be silly if not changed in 2010.)
Peacekeeper Complex Graphic Benchmarks
Outside
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Platform integration
- On Windows 7/Vista, you will notice a lot of visual changes and use of APIs which allow the UI to display the Aero Glass effect. For Windows 7, we also added Aero Peek and Jump List support to easily access your Speed Dials, Tabs, etc. from the Taskbar.
- For Mac, a complete rewrite in Cocoa brings an Unified Toolbar, native buttons and scrollbars, multi-touch gestures (try 3-Finger Swipe Left/Right or Pinch to zoom) and a bunch of other small details. We also added Growl notification support.
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“Private tab” and “Private window”
You can open a new Private tab or Private window that forgets everything that happened on it once closed.
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Non-modal dialogs
Dialog boxes (JavaScript alerts, HTTP authentication, etc.) are now non-modal and are displayed as a page overlay. This allows you to switch tabs or windows while the dialog is still displayed. Similarly, the Password Manager dialog is now anchored at the top of the page won’t block any content as it loads a new page.
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Address field and Search field improvements
Both fields have been upgraded in looks and functionality. They can now remember searches, support removing items from history and show results in a better layout.
Download
To try it out, you can download the latest Labs build here:
Firefox 3.6 Beta 5 is now available
Dec 22nd
Mozilla community released Firefox 3.6 Beta 5, making it available for free download and issuing an automatic update to all Firefox 3.6 beta users. This update contains over 100 fixes from the last Firefox 3.6 beta, containing many improvements for web developers, Add-on developers, and users.
Over 70% of the thousands of Firefox Add-ons have now been upgraded by their authors to be compatible with Firefox 3.6 Beta. If your favorite Add-on isn’t yet compatible, you can also download and install the Add-on Compatibility Reporter – your favorite Add-on author will appreciate it!
The Beta of Firefox 3.6 / Gecko 1.9.2 introduces several new features for users to evaluate:
- Support for the HTML5 File API
- A change to how third-party software integrates with Firefox to increase stability.
- The ability to run scripts asynchronously to speed up page load times.
- Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.
- Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
- Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
- Support for the WOFF font format.
- Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
- Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.
Web developers and Add-on developers should read more detail about the many new features in Firefox 3.6 for developers on the Mozilla Developer Center. For the full list of changes since the alpha release of Firefox 3.6 see this list (it’s big).
If you already have Firefox 3.6 Beta, you should be automatically updated to the latest version. You can also choose to manually “Check for Updates” from the Help menu.
If you’d like to download Firefox 3.6 Beta, please use the following links or visit the Beta Download Page:
- Windows: Firefox 3.6 Beta 5 Setup.exe
- Mac OS X: Firefox 3.6 Beta 5.dmg
- Linux: firefox-3.6b5.tar.bz2
Connectify 1.0 is now available
Dec 21st
Connectify Releases Connectify 1.0 for Windows 7
Connectify 1.0 (http://www.connectify.me) is now available.
For downloading Connectify, click here to start the download.
Here is their press release about this release:
Connectify is proud to announce Connectify 1.0 (http://www.connectify.me), a free software application for Windows 7 that turns any Wi-Fi enabled computer into a real wireless access point. With Connectify, users can share any Internet connection: a cable modem, a cellular card, or even another Wi-Fi network with any device that supports Wi-Fi. Connectify has hit a market need: since its beta release on October 27th, Connectify has had over 97,000 downloads, and 26% of Connectify users state they upgraded to Windows 7 specifically to be able to use Connectify.
Consumers can use the software to connect their computers, smart phones, music players, game systems and other devices onto personal Wi-Fi networks, or to extend the range of their home Wi-Fi networks. Because the Connectify software is free to download and use, users can save money on multiple Wi-Fi connections while on the road and still get all their devices online simultaneously. “Everywhere you go, users congregate in groups and have multiple devices including notebook PCs, Wi-Fi enabled handsets and mobile internet devices,” said Alex Gizis, CEO of Connectify. “We simply noticed a tremendous problem: There was no easy way for all of the user’s mobile devices to get and stay online. Connectify is our solution.”
For teams of mobile professionals, Connectify plus file sharing is a mobile office to go. Only the machine sharing the Internet connection needs to be running Connectify. Other Wi-Fi enabled devices can see and join the hotspot just like any other Wi-Fi access point and do not even need to be running Windows.
“MiFi has been a raging success providing a standalone device to enable Wi-Fi access for up to five nearby Wi-Fi enabled systems,” said J. Gerry Purdy, Ph.D., Chief Analyst for Mobile & Wireless at Frost & Sullivan and Managing Director, Yosemite Ventures. “Now, any new notebook PC can be turned into a Wi-Fi hotspot using free software from Connectify.”
Connectify is available at no charge. The company plans to offer Connectify on a wide range of mobile devices and provide a number of value added services within the software that will be made available for a small fee.
To download Connectify for free now, go to http://www.connectify.me .
ABOUT CONNECTIFY
Connectify is a Philadelphia based company that has developed innovative wireless solutions for the military and (now) the consumer market. The Connectify team is dedicated to bringing real wireless sharing to everyone, saving people money, and improving the cross platform wireless experience.
Upgrading to Connectify 1.0
For downloading Connectify, click here to start the download.
Changes since Beta 4.1
- Improved Notification tray icons (including a warning icon if the selected Internet connection is not currently working)
- Support for even more wireless cards and configurations
- Improved memory and CPU management
- Recover from sleep/hibernate
- Support for machines where multiple users install Connectify and log on at same time
- Ability to remove clients from the Client History list (right click to get menu)
- Autohiding of the Mode box. By default we hide the “Mode” box to choose between AP or Ad Hoc mode. If your wireless card supports both, then we default to Access Point mode. To keep the mode box visible, there is an option on the Option menu (right click on the Connectify logo to show the menu).
- Fix device capability detection
Download/Upgrade Connectify 1.0 now.
