Safari

Browsers don't matter? Look at the longer view

Posted 17 Nov 2010 by Laura Scott
iPad screen

I love my apps!

I have an iPad and a Droid. I used to have an iPhone (before I decided I wanted my phone to also be able to make calls). I love apps! They're efficient and fast. Websites on mobile browsers can be difficult to manage. The apps can connect with internet data, but do it with a much improved user experience. No doubt. When it comes to mobile at least, a well-designed app beats a well-designed website 99% of the time. It's a new paradigm today. An interesting read is on O'Reilly, where Mac Slocum interviews Ken Yarmosh on app dominance.

But does this browsers don't matter anymore? David Card seems to think so.

Browsers don’t matter anymore….

For once, I'm wishing more sites were like PayPal

Posted 18 Apr 2008 by Laura Scott

I'm not a fan of PayPal, with its poor customer service (which is a huge deal when it comes to handling money), but I'm with them on this:

Web payment firm Paypal has said it will block "unsafe browsers" from using its service as part of wider anti-phishing efforts....

...Paypal said it was "an alarming fact that there is a significant set of users who use very old and vulnerable browsers such as Internet Explorer 4"....

...Paypal said some users were still using Internet Explorer 3 , released more than 10 years ago.

IE3?? Holy cow! I don't even think that's loaded on my old IBM Intellistation that's collecting dust in the corner.

Here's a surprise to me:

Paypal said it supported the use of Extended Validation SSL Certificates....

...The latest version of Internet Explorer support EV SSL certificates, while Firefox 2 supports it with an add-on but Apple's Safari browser for Mac and PCs does not.

(Emphasis added.)

Fear of the white hat

Posted 4 Apr 2008 by Laura Scott

Via MacWorld:

“This is not good; this is a security risk,” he said. “We’re a bank.”

Wilson said it has taken him the better part of a week to remove Safari from his network and prevent it from being reinstalled.

In an e-mail interview, Susan Bradley agreed that the updates are creating a problem for administrators and making users less secure. “It impacts all of us when more potential attack surface is installed in a group of folks that are vulnerable enough as it is,” said Bradley, who is chief technology officer with Tamiyasu, Smith, Horn and Braun, Accountancy Corp.

Of course I don't have any stats, but I wonder how many of these IT folks are the same ones keeping IE6 alive.

Unboxing the Apple iPhone

Posted 25 Mar 2008 by Laura Scott
iPhone box

Last week, after suffering through the appalling un-usability of the Blackberry 8830 "worldphone" throughout DrupalCon -- which followed more than a year suffering from my worst technology purchase ever -- I bit the bullet and swallowed my distaste of Apple's increasingly closed-and-controlling technology, and my lingering resentment of AT&T Wireless (ugh) by going into the Apple store and buying an iPhone.

Yeah, I know. I'm sooooooo late to the party.

I was drawn by the user interface, not the newly "opened" application development path that has gotten all the press. The user interface was enough.

And wow, did my interest ever pay off!

Apple's in the wrong, but Safari really is the better browser

Posted 22 Mar 2008 by Laura Scott

As a citizen and computer user, I agree that Apple is wrong to push Safari on Windows users:

Debate is raging today over the news that Steve Jobs has made good on his summertime promise and is now sending Apple's browser Safari along for the ride when Windows users are prompted to update iTunes or Quicktime.

Users can deselect the additional software download, but let's be realistic - there's got to be millions of people unwittingly downloading Safari onto their computers right now. Downloading software has to be opt-in, not opt-out.

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