|
Archive 2003 Q1
(28 March 2003)
Apple Computer have announced that OX S version 10.3 will be launched in September 2003. Codenamed 'Panther' it will be a significant improvement over 10.2 (Jaguar). Development is due to be frozen in May 2003, and the full specification will be announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June.
In addition to improved functionality it will also incorporate performance enhancements such as multi-threading and multi-processor support plus features that will take advantage of the G5 processor that will be released later this year. A beta version is expected around July 2003.
www.apple.com/
Top
(15 March 2003)
AOL has long been available for Classic Mac operating systems, but a version for Mac OS X has only been available since late 2002. Although OS X only has a small market share, the significance of this AOL version is that it is the first to be based on Netscape's Gecko engine rather than Microsoft Internet Explorer. This development has been on the cards since AOL's acquisition of Netscape and is seen as a low-risk way to test the new technology before offering a PC version.
Test projects conducted for our customers have revealed a range of faults affecting the page layout and rendering of graphics. Also some disabled accessibility features are not well implemented, necessitating additional development and test requirements if the W3C Guidelines for Disabled Accessibility are to be met.
www.aol.co.uk/download/
Top
(06 February 2003)
Despite competing with giants such as Microsoft, AOL and Apple, Opera has consistently maintained approximately a 1% share of the browser market. Their new version 7 browser has a much improved rendering engine that beta tests have shown to be significantly faster than previous versions. It has also been designed to be more compatible with the Document Object Model (DOM), an emerging standard technology that lets scripts such as JavaScript act on individual elements of a Web page.
www.opera.com
Top
(10 January 2003)
Apple Computer have recently launched beta version 1.0 of a brand new browser for OS X. Named Safari, it is the first browser to be developed in-house by the company, and will reduce their reliance on third-party products from Microsoft and other vendors.
Apple have based the product on the Konqueror kernel from KDE which has a very small file size and is reported to give very fast page loading times. It also boasts features such as Snapback (which provides an alternative way to find pages visited previously), advanced Bookmark functionality and built-in Google search.
Initial reaction from reviewers has not been entirely positive with some serious stability issues reported, but there will undoubtedly be improvements made before the product goes to full release. Maybe it is significant that in his keynote speech at Macworld Expo, Steve Jobs described the browser as being 'based on standards' rather than 'standards compliant'.
www.apple.com/safari/
Top
Test Partners Special Offer Extended (again)
(02 January 2003)
We first advertised our Special Offer of 2 days free testing for a limited period in October 2001 and the response exceeded all expectation. Since then the offer has been extended several times and we are pleased to announce that it is now available until 30 June 2003.
Many companies who took advantage of the offer are now regular customers and often tell us 'When delivery timescales are tight, your testing gives us the confidence that the product really will meet the customer's expectations'. The same customers tell us that post-delivery remedial work is now a thing of the past, so the testing effectively pays for itself.
www.testpartners.co.uk/special_offer.htm
Top
|
