February 24, 2003
Geckos on the Loose
Netscape's DevEdge site kind of hides a useful Gecko browser chart in its download section. Check it out—it conveniently lists all the browsers that are based on the Gecko/Mozilla engine, offers a link to the download site for each implementation and breaks down the version of Gecko each supports.
February 23, 2003
Netscape 7.02 Released
I somehow missed the announcement of this, but Netscape/AOL released the Netscape 7.02 update last week (Linux/Mac/OS X/Win).
Enhanced security and Improved stability have become common refrains from browser release notes; also noted is the Windows installer bundling of both a new version of the Java 1.4.0_03 plug-in, although it kept the 1.4.0_01 install on my WinXP Home machine, and the latest Flash Player, version 6.0r65, which addresses the evil bitmap shifting bug. Oddly, there doesn't appear to be a Flash bundling with the OS X version of Netscape 7.02, and inexplicably the Classic Mac version is bundled with Flash Player 6.0r29!
If you are new to the Netscape 7 experience, you may want to check out my Netscape 7 Report and my notes on the Netscape 7.01 update.
Sadly, Mac and Linux users still see pages with transparent backgrounds printed as black.
For enquiring minds:
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20030208 Netscape/7.02
February 15, 2003
Browser Cam: New Testing Service
By way of Evolt's thelist, I came across an interesting new way to test web pages. Browser Cam is an online subscription service that returns screen grabs of your pages running on the browser, platform, and screen resolution of your choosing. The service also supports spidering of your site, pop-ups, and browsers with Flash installed and uninstalled. This could be a useful resource for small shops that don't have the expertise or budget to maintain a suite of test machines on their own.
Pricing is $39.95 monthly for unlimited use and a $10 single-use charge for ten url in as many browser/plats as you want. If you need a browser or platform that's not listed, the service claims they will add by request.
February 14, 2003
os X tras
Nonoche publishes The Inch-High Table O' Products to track OS X ports of Director Xtras. It's a great resource to check the progress on OS X compatible xtras in development as well as those already released. While you are there, check out Nonoche's great Shockwave game and game port work.
