Daily News Courier

Data Browser Shows Changes in the Electricity Fuel Mix

Visualization tool shows how dramatically natural gas is displacing coal in electricity generation and the dynamics of renewable energy.

Even people with a passing interest in energy know there have been major changes in the U.S. over the past few years, including the surge in domestic oil and natural gas drilling and a jump in renewable energy.

The Browser Wars Go Mobile

Startups are bringing creative features to the small screen in hopes of luring iPhone, Android users away from the default browser.

When surfing the Web on a smartphone, most of us stick with the browser that came with our handset. That experience can be clunky, though, and a slew of mobile browsers are trying to break into a market dominated by Apple and Google.

Hidden full screen browsing mode in latest Chrome Beta discovered

Full screen browsing is top of many an Android fans wish list for Google's mobile version of the Chrome browser. On smartphone screens in particular, display space is important. It seems it might not be all that far away, as a recent discovery has shown off a hidden full screen browsing mode. 

Shared by Reddit user smackel, there is a bit of light work to be done to bring it about. So, while there, our thinking is that this is something to be rolled out properly in future updates. It's also a little buggy, but doesn't take any genius level work to enable. Click on past the break and we'll walk you through it. 

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Hidden full screen browsing mode in latest Chrome Beta discovered

Full screen browsing is top of many an Android fans wish list for Google's mobile version of the Chrome browser. On smartphone screens in particular, display space is important. It seems it might not be all that far away, as a recent discovery has shown off a hidden full screen browsing mode. 

Shared by Reddit user smackel, there is a bit of light work to be done to bring it about. So, while there, our thinking is that this is something to be rolled out properly in future updates. It's also a little buggy, but doesn't take any genius level work to enable. Click on past the break and we'll walk you through it. 

read more

Opera bringing the Ice browser to Android and iOS

Opera is said to be bringing a new WebKit based browser to Android and iOS. Named "Ice", it presents a radical departure from what we're used to seeing with the stock Android Browser, Chrome, or even Safari. Shown off in an internal meeting right before Christmas, the folks at Pocket-lint got their hands on a copy and now we all can have a look.

Besides the UI, which we'll get back to in a moment, it's important to recognize that "Ice" won;t be using the same Presto rendering platform that Opera's current Android apps use. With Ice, Opera has moved to WebKit, the same engine that Chrome and Safari, as well as the stock Android browser and all the custom browsers in Google Play, are using. This should give Ice an edge, as most mobile pages and web apps are designed with WebKit in mind.

The new Opera Ice browser will be based around hiding the technology as much as possible and embracing rich applications. It will ditch all buttons and instead use gestures to control key elements like forwards and backwards. "This is a full touch and tablet-focused browser," said the product manager in the video we've seen. "Most are taking a PC browser and squishing [it] into a tablet, or they are taking a mobile browser and blowing it up to fill the space."

Yes, the UI looks very different. I'm not sure how I feel about "hiding technology" from the end user in favor of gestures and big icons, but I'll have to give the finished product a look before a final judgment.

Ice is not set to replace Opera mini, the small browser that compresses data to save time and bandwidth, but we expect that it may push the standard Opera Mobile for Android browser into retirement. Word is we'll know more at Mobile World Congress, which is coming right around the corner. We'll be there, and keep an eye out.

Source: Pocket-lint

Plan Would Put a Bank in Every Browser

An open payments system built into Web standards could transform online life, if the proposal takes off.

Over the past few decades, a handful of open standards for rendering and sharing text and imagery between computers—better known as the World Wide Web—have helped upend businesses worldwide. But these Web standards do not cover ways of transferring money or selling content, leaving us to fumble for credit cards and PayPal account details when it’s time to cough up.

Samsung Galaxy Note expected to receive Android 4.1 premium suite upgrade soon

Today, we have some good news for owners of the original Samsung Galaxy Note.

Google Now appears aimed for the Chrome browser

Google just keeps on closing the gaps between its products, as today we're seeing that the Chrome team is getting ready to put Google Now into the Chrome browser. An eagle-eyed user spotted code being merged into the Chromium project that is "creating a skeleton for Google Now for Chrome implementation." We'd expect to see more being put in as the feature gets closer to a true launch.

We're not so sure how the concept of Google Now fits into the browser, but it will be interesting to see how it ends up being implemented. Surely as devices like Chromebooks become more widely accepted — many of which have 3G data access — something like Google Now makes sense on more than just phones and tablets.

Source: François Beaufort (Google+); Via: CNET

This week’s sidebar poll: What is your browser of choice?

Having access to the Internet's rich content is a good reason why many of us love our smartphones. The days of WAP browsing are over and we have all sorts of options and way to get the Web and services right in our hands. On the Android platform we're especially lucky, because we have an abundance of browser apps available right in Google Play. Whether you need one of the numerous fast-as-heck rendering Webkit browsers, like Chrome or Dolphin, or want the compatibility with desktop web apps that Firefox's Gecko delivers, or even the quick loading pages that come with Opera Mini, Android has you covered.

This is where we share, so I'll tell what I'm using. I actually install two full browsers — Chrome and Firefox. I need Chrome's device sync and tie-in to my Google account, and use it as my device default browser, but when I'm just playing and surfing the 'net I use Firefox, as it seems to do a better job with the sites I frequent. What about you guys? Hit the poll — you'll find it in the sidebar to the right or after the break — and let us know how you do it.

Last week's poll was about NFC, and here are the results.

Do you use NFC often?

• Yes — 31-percent
• No — 43.98-percent
• My phone doesn't have NFC. Sad Panda face — 25.01-percent

With a 30-percent plus adoption rate among Android enthusiasts, NFC looks like a feature the manufacturers need to consider when they make their next device. 

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Google improves Chrome Android browser security with latest update

With mobile devices becoming more and more popular, it is no surprise to see malicious adware and viruses continue to pop-up through apps and web browsing.