Jim Rapoza

Mozilla Firefox has been out for more than five years and is just at Version 3.0. Apple Safari was originally released six years ago and is at Version 4.0. Google Chrome has been out for less than nine months, and Google just made Version 3.0 available. Google clearly is hell-bent on quickly making up for […]

Given the amount of hype around Google Wave since it was first announced, one would expect to be astonished and amazed by a radical new take on collaboration and Web development. Based on my initial tests, Google Wave has potential but isn’t a game-changer-at least not now. At this point, Google Wave is still just […]

LABS GALLERY: Google Wave Developer Preview Shows Platforms Potential by Jim Rapoza Google Wave Google Wave combines standard e-mail interface coventions with some nice interactive capabilities for real-time collaboration and Web platform development. Collaboration In a Google Wave collaboration, users can view entries in real time, comment on and edit content, and interact with media, […]

UPDATE: Well, the first few days I ran this test I was able to view it on systems that weren’t logged into the Google Wave developer sandbox. However, now it seems as if you can’t view (never mind interact with) a Wave unless you are logged into the sandbox. I’m currently working on a review […]

Once again the enemies of network neutrality are doing their very best to help out those dedicated to pushing through laws to ensure network neutrality on the Internet. How does this happen? Well, the main opponents to network neutrality on the Internet are the major national ISPs that provide most of the broadband connections for […]

Everybody is talking about what a boost the new Microsoft–Yahoo deal will be for competition in the online search business. The general consensus is that the combination of Microsoft’s Bing search and Yahoo’s market share will make for a stronger front against Google, resulting in increased innovation and more opportunities and capabilities for Web users. […]

Here are the emerging technologies stories for the week of July 27th. 4G Network Tests – Verizon announced that they will launch tests of their 4G LTE network in Seattle and Boston later this year. The 8 to 10 Mbps speed sounds nice but we’ll see. Robot Firefighters – The London Fire Brigade has been […]

There’s a famous quote from Walt Kelly’s Pogo that goes, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” This quote has been jumping to my mind a lot lately as I’ve watched the ongoing battle between Microsoft and Google. That’s because I’ve been finding it a lot harder lately to tell these two companies […]

With the release of Silverlight 3, Microsoft continues its race to catch up with the product’s main competition-namely, Adobe’s Flash. To a large degree, Microsoft has done a good job, adding many features that Silverlight lacked compared with Flash. But Silverlight still lags behind Adobe’s Flash-and behind Adobe’s related products, AIR and Flex–when it comes […]

Labs Gallery: Microsoft Expression Blend 3 RC Makes Great Strides in RIA Race by Jim Rapoza SketchFlow The new SketchFlow feature in Expression Blend 3 makes it possible to prototype application projects in a way that approximates rough sketches, a model that some have found to be more effective than polished prototypes. SketchFlow Prototypes Though […]

Finally, our long national nightmare is over. No, I’m not talking about the economy, that’s still a mess. No, what I’m talking about is the misguided and confusing practice of referring to products as beta that are intended to be used by people and businesses. In the same week that they announced their still-far-off Chrome […]

Labs Gallery: Firefox 3.5 Provides Significant Improvements By Jim Rapoza Performance and Reliability Improvements With performance and reliability improvements in the new Firefox 3.5, users should be able to engage in long browsing sessions with multiple open tabs and windows without fear of crashes or slowdowns. Private Browsing Private browsing, a feature found in most […]