web

Canary is a developer and beta version of Google Chrome's newest features. By allowing both versions of Chrome to run side-by-side, you can test out the newest features without sacrificing your stable version.

If you're using the most recent version of Canary, there's a new experimental feature that lets you view the offline cached versions of Web pages. Not sure if you have the most recent build? Easy fix. Just click the Settings icon in the top-right-hand corner, then choose About Google Chrome. Your browser will check for updates and apply any available.

So let's get … Read more

Adobe Flash has received a kick in the pants from yet another company.

Unity Technologies, which makes 3D video tools that allow developers to create Web-based games, announced Wednesday that it will no longer support Flash.

"We will keep the current Flash deployment feature set functioning throughout the Unity 4.x cycle and will include bug fixes made in upcoming Unity 4.x iterations," Unity CEO David Helgason said in a blog post Wednesday. "We do not plan, however, to make further significant investments in deployment to the platform."

In his blog, Helgason cited Adobe's … Read more

Facebook has begun using a Google image format called WebP that could lower its network costs and speed up its Web site. But the move has angered some members.

When people upload JPEG photos, the social-networking juggernaut converts them into the WebP format. And now it also apparently has begun delivering those images to people with browsers that can handle them, which today means Chrome and Opera.

Even if it's just a limited test, Facebook's scale and influence means that's a major endorsement of Google's image format.

But problems arise when it's time for people … Read more

From Aaron Swartz's struggles with an antihacking law to Hollywood's lobbying to a raft of surveillance proposals, the Internet and its users' rights are under attack as never before, according to the creators of a forthcoming documentary film.

The film, titled "War for the Web," traces the physical infrastructure of the Internet, from fat underwater cables to living room routers, as a way to explain the story of what's behind the high-volume politicking over proposals like CISPA, Net neutrality, and the Stop Online Piracy Act.

"People talk about security, people talk about privacy, they … Read more

Facebook has redesigned user profiles many times over, but the latest version offers the most control (so far) to the actual user. The main difference between the new version and the old version is that all updates and events will display on the right-hand side of the page. Information about you -- along with the samples of friends and photos -- will display on the left side. Unlike the last design, which looked similar to a game of ping-pong happening on your Timeline, this revamp lets you focus on reading updates from friends.

Now for the most useful new feature: … Read more

The abundance of unused white space on the New Tab page in Chrome lends developers ample options for sprucing it up. While the extension I'm about to suggest isn't anything groundbreaking, it's definitely one of the better options out there in terms of usefulness.

Literally called "New Tab Page," this Chrome extension makes your New Tab useful and attractive but doesn't gain any creativity points for its name. Installing the extension is quick: just head to the entry for New Tab Page on the Chrome Web Store and click Add to Chrome. … Read more

RuneScape, a popular massive online swords-and-sorcery game, is at last dumping Java and becoming a Web app.

Jagex Games Studio released the first RuneScape 3 beta yesterday, embracing HTML5 and related Web standards that offer programmers a more modern option for writing software that runs on a variety of operating systems.

About time, I say. Java had some potential years ago, and it still has its place elsewhere in the computing world. But as a way to extend a browser's abilities, it's history. If the plague of Java security vulnerabilities weren't enough to convince you otherwise, the … Read more

A split-screen view is nice when you're shopping online or doing research that requires flipping back and forth between pages. Dual Web Browsers for iPad splits your screen in half and lets you browse two pages at once. While it performs okay, we would have liked to see more navigational and viewing options.

Dual Web Browsers for iPad does exactly what its name suggests: It splits your screen into two browsers, one on top and another on the bottom half of your screen. Each browser has an address bar and a backward navigational button, but that's it. There'… Read more

It was just over three years ago that I first encountered (and wrote about) Swag Bucks, a service that rewards you for completing various online activities.

I used it pretty hot and heavy for about a year, eventually accumulating some downright decent prizes, but then it dropped off my radar. Way, way off -- I kind of forgot it existed.

Come to find out, though, that Swag Bucks is alive and well -- and still a rather interesting way to score freebies just for doing stuff you might already be doing anyway.

For example, you can earn points ("swag … Read more