|
Archive 2004 Q1
(28 March 2004)
AOL have released version 9.0 in the UK nearly a year after it was released in the US. All Windows versions from 98 onwards are supported but there are no plans to support Windows 95 or any Mac OSs. The program is available only by download, CDs being available from April 2004.
AOL claim that their new TopSpeed™ technology is a web accelerator that improves page download times without specifying how this is achieved. Most other improvements relate to email, messaging and security, including regular McAfee anti-virus upgrades, McAfee Personal Firewall Plus for AOL Broadband users, Video Instant Messaging and AOL Talk (voice over IP to other AOL users).
When downloading, a 300k setup file is installed, after which a smart download of the rest of the program occurs. A Lite version with reduced functionality is automatically installed on machines with less than 128MB RAM.
 www.aol.co.uk/aol9/upgrade/
Top
(16 March 2004)
This is a substantial update containing a wide range of improvements and bug fixes. Key enhancements include:
- network volumes are now available in the Finder sidebar and Desktop for convenient access
- improved file sharing and directory services for Mac (AFP), UNIX (NFS) and PC (SMB/CIFS) networks
- improved PostScript and USB printing
- improved font management
- updated Disk Utility, DVD Player, Image Capture, Mail and Safari applications
- additional support for FireWire and USB devices
- new ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers
- improved compatibility for third party applications
- FileVault, FireWire 800 and WebDAV improvements from Update 10.3.1
- previous standalone security updates and Bluetooth Update 1.5
www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosxupdate_10_3_3.html
Top
(24 March 2004)
Opera plan to include IBM's speech recognition technology ViaVoice in a version of their browser later this year. It will be possible to navigate and submit forms using voice commands, improving usability and accessibility particularly on small devices such as PDAs.
Web developers will be able to add voice input and output to traditional HTML-based pages by using the XHTML+Voice (X+V) markup language.
www.opera.com/pressreleases/en/2004/03/23/
Top
(05 March 2004)
The US Patent Office has nullified a patent granted to Eolas in 1998 in relation to the execution of remote code embedded in hypertext pages. Previously a court had awarded $521M to Eolas for a breach of this patent by Microsoft.
The award potentially required the redesign of all browsers and many websites and had been widely condemned, including a strong statement from Tim Berners Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web. The US Patent Office appears to have accepted the argument put forward by Berners Lee and others that examples of 'prior art' exist, and that the original patent should not have been granted. Eolas have 60 days to appeal.
www.w3.org/2004/03/ptofinding20040305.pdf
Top
(09 February 2004)
The Mozilla Foundation has renamed its standalone Web browser from Firebird to Firefox to prevent confusion with the Firebird open-source database overseen by the FirebirdSQL Foundation. Version 0.8 of the browser was released today, with versions available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
Version 0.5 of the Thunderbird standalone email client was also released and contains improvements aimed at enterprise users such as the ability to synchronize address books with Palm devices; IMAP performance and interoperability improvements; Secure password authentication using SSPI NTLM for SMTP and POP3; Improved LDAP support; Improved migration from Netscape 4.x; Improved spell checker and English dictionary; Numerous other bug fixes and improvements.
www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
Top
(02 February 2004)
In addition to providing support for Sun's Java 1.4.2 APIs, this release includes enhancements to drawing performance and stability for both Java applications and Java applets. This Java version is required to support the LiveConnect functionality in Safari 1.2, which was also released today. It requires Mac OS X 10.3.1 or higher.
www.apple.com/java/
Top
(02 February 2004)
Safari 1.2 is only available for Mac OS X 10.3 and supports personal certificate authentication. Websites now can provide users with personal certificates, generated by a certificate authority and stored in Keychain, for authentication instead of only user names and passwords.
Another new feature, LiveConnect, allows for two-way communication between the browser and Java applets. Accessibility has also been improved, and it is now possible to navigate websites using only keyboard controls instead of a mouse.
www.apple.com/safari/
Top
(23 January 2004)
UnitedLinux, the consortium formed by the four second-tier Linux vendors has closed its doors. Originally formed as a counterbalance to Red Hat, changing circumstances have undermined its prospects. SCO Group (previously Caldera International) is now attempting to sue Linux users for IP violation but refuses to leave the consortium, and SuSE has been acquired by Novell and is now strong enough to challenge Red Hat alone. In addition another consortium, OSDL, has made more progress with software and hardware companies and end users.
Conectiva, SuSE and Turbolinux will continue to market their respective UnitedLinux distributions and will support their customers throughout the lifecycle of version 1.0. There are no plans for a version 2.0 at this time.
www.unitedlinux.com
Top
(16 January 2004)
The latest version of the open-source web-browser suite was released today and includes greater integration with the GNOME desktop for Linux. GNOME MIME-type associations now allow Mozilla to adopt the same associations as the GNOME desktop for determining which application to launch for particular file types.
Also added is support for a Microsoft-specific NT LAN Manager authentication mechanism into its Linux and Mac OS X versions in addition to the Windows version, which is particularly useful for enterprises.
Earlier in the year Mozilla published a roadmap showing that it would abandon the full suite, but this decision has been reversed following feedback from users, and larger organisations in particular. A new roadmap for future development of the Mozilla suite and standalone applications (Thunderbird and Firebird) will be issued soon.
www.mozilla.org/products/mozilla1.x/download/
Top
(12 January 2004)
Microsoft has reversed an earlier decision to end support for Windows 98 and ME early this year, and announced that Windows 98, 98SE and ME will now be supported until the middle of June 2006. The company says it now has a policy of supporting products for seven years, during which time it will also provide security updates for the operating environments.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[LN];LifeAn1
Top
|
