Apple released a 3.1 version of its Safari Web browser on Tuesday with several improvements. Apple said the new version loads Web pages 1.9 times faster than Microsofts Internet Explorer 7 and 1.7 times faster than the open-source Firefox 2 browser. It also said Safari 3.1 runs JavaScript up to six times faster than any other browser, and it is the first to support new Web standards.

Apple said the speed benchmarks were based on VeriTests iBench Version 5.0 with default settings, running on an iMac 2.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo system with Windows XP and 1GB of memory.

For Mac and Windows
The browser is available as a free download at www.apple.com/safari, and works on both Mac OS X and Windows operating systems. For Mac, the browser requires either the Tiger 10.4.11 version of Mac OS X, or Leopard, with at least 256MB of memory on any Intel-based Mac or any Mac with a PowerPC G5, G4 or G3 processor. For Windows XP or Vista, at least 256MB of memory is required and at least a 500-MHz Intel Pentium processor.

Apple Senior Vice President Philip Schiller said Safari 3.1 is "blazingly fast, easy to use" and features an "elegant user interface." Best of all, he added, the newest Safari supports audio, video and animation standards needed for the next generation of Web 2.0 experiences.

In particular, Apple noted that Safari 3.1 is the first browser to support new video and audio tags in HTML 5, as well as the first to support CSS animations. It also supports CSS Web fonts that offer new design choices.

Support for MacBook Air
The interface includes drag-and-drop bookmarks, easy-to-organize tabs, and an integrated Find that shows the number of matches in a page. A built-in RSS reader enables the user to scan and view news and information from feeds. Other features include double-clicking on the tab bar to open a new tab, URL metadata that accompanies images when they are dragged or saved from the browser, and support for trackpad gestures of back, forward and multiply on MacBook Air computers.

The new Safari also supports offline storage for Web applications in SQL databases, support for SVG and CSS images, and support for SVG advanced text. The Windows version improves on back and forward controls, supports signed Java applets, shows the Caps Lock icon in password fields, and adds support for international domain names. In addition, a contextual menu in the Windows version permits opening a link in a window or tab and there is improved pop-up blocking for plug-ins.

For the developer, Apple noted that there is now an option in Safari preferences to turn on the new Develop menu, which has Web development options. There is also access to a Web inspector with CSS editing, an improved snippet editor, and support for a custom user agent string.

Source- http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20080318/bs_nf/58863;_ylt=AurBddrxpUpG_v.8vTxN_PgjtBAF

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Last quarter, of the 4.3 million phones sold by BlackBerry, 3.2 million were powered by the older BlackBerry 7 OS. That was a shock considering the lengths to which BlackBerry tried to promote its new BlackBerry 10 powered phones. BlackBerry has inked a five year deal with contract manufacturer Foxconn for the latter to design, produce and handle warehousing of low-end BlackBerry models for emerging markets. When it was rumored that the first handset to be released under this deal, the BlackBerry Jakarta, would not have a physical QWERTY and would be powered by BlackBerry 10, it seemed that BlackBerry was about to pull the plug on BlackBerry 7 OS.

But there is some good news today for those who favor the older BlackBerry 7 OS. Sunil Lalwani, the Managing Director of BlackBerry India, now says that BlackBerry 7 OS will be supported until December 2015. That means that the platform that contributed the lions share of BlackBerry sales last quarter will still be around for nearly two years.

"The inherent new features of BB10 had to be clearly articulated to end-users, which wasn’t done well, leading to issues like inventory build-up of the Z10, but after cutting the price, sales have picked up again."-Sunil Lalwani, Managing Director, BlackBerry India

BlackBerry had to take a charge on an embarrassing amount of BlackBerry Z10 units as $960 million was written off in the second quarter. A further write down of $2.7 billion for unsold BlackBerry 10 units was taken in the third quarter. Lalwani said that BlackBerry did a poor job of showing potential buyers all of the features of BlackBerry 10, which led to the inventory write-offs. He does point out that since cutting the price of the Z10, sales have perked up.

After December 2015, the Managing Director says that BlackBerry will stop selling the older BlackBerry 7 OS powered models, and will offer deals to get owners of those BlackBerry models to exchange them for a BlackBerry 10 model. So if you love that QWERTY keyboard on the BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930, you have a couple of years left to pick one up. And no, Lalwani says that there is no sequel to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in the works.

"It’s been a difficult one year, but you only emerge stronger and learn what is your core strength based on which customer segments are still loyal to you. It’s not that we are not profitable anymore, but have taken several write-offs resulting in a hit on our books in the last one year. This was due to several reasons.

When we launched BB 10, it was a new platform built ground up to upgrade a decade old BB platform. The inherent new features of BB10 had to be clearly articulated to end-users, which wasn’t done well, leading to issues like inventory build-up of the Z10 but after cutting the price, sales have picked up again. In the last quarter, 60% of our revenue came from services and software – they generate higher margins. This is why, this year and beyond, services and software will be predominant focus for BlackBerry, and devices will be a pull through. We believe this strategy will be key to our turnaround and profitability in 2014, and we are extremely bullish about the future of BlackBerry."-Sunil Lalwani, Managing Director, BlackBerry India PhoneArena

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