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Gorgeous 21:9 LCD TV from Philips Goes 3D
3-way hardware-accelerated browser shoot-out: Chrome on top, IE9 just behind and Firefox brings up the rear (video)
After yesterday's announcement that Chrome 7 is now hardware accelerated, I instantly wanted to get the major browsers back into the ring for another screencasted deathmatch. Back when I did the 4-way speed test, only Firefox and Internet Explorer 9 featured hardware acceleration, and as a result Opera and Chrome were many orders of magnitude slower. If you watch the video, however, you'll see that's definitely no longer the case: Chrome is now the fastest of the three major browsers.
That speed comes at a price! As I discuss in the video, Chrome might be faster, but it uses significantly more resources than either IE9 or Firefox 4. Firefox is some 30% slower, but at the same time seems to use less CPU and GPU time. IE9 seems to utilize the same amount of CPU time as Chrome, but a little less of the GPU -- and it's marginally slower as a result.
What I don't know is whether this is by design or not. You'll notice that the GPU never went far above 50% -- why, with three browsers open, does it not get closer to 100%? The resources are there to be used -- why not use them?! Likewise, my CPU is still only half-used even when all three browsers are drawing 1000 frantic fishes at the same time. If you're curious, the other IE9 test drive samples all provided similar results. I wanted to try Google's 'HTML5 rocks' sample gallery, but they intentionally used elements of CSS and HTML5 that aren't yet supported in Internet Explorer 9 or Firefox 4.
In the name of science, here's some more information about my process: the screen capture does slow down each browser by a few frames per second, but relatively the figures are still accurate. I saw a small deviation in FPS when I was only running one browser at a time (probably because my CPU has multiple cores). There are a few unknown variables too, like whether the CPU core usage is defined by the app, or by the operating system (but with Chrome using more resources than IE9, you can only assume that Windows isn't unfairly biasing its own-brand browser).
If you'd like to recreate my test, you'll need to enable hardware acceleration in Firefox 4 and Chrome -- IE9 has it turned on by default:
- Firefox 4 -- grab a nightly build, navigate to about:config and add gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled -- set it to 'true'
- Chrome 7 -- grab a nightly build and add the following flags to the shortcut before opening it: --enable-accelerated-compositing --enable-gpu-plugin --enable-gpu-rendering --enable-accelerated-2d-canvas
Google TV demoed on video -- Google Chrome on board, slick search capabilities
What you'll see in the video after the break is darn near a geek's TV dream come true. Apart from adding super-slick search abilities to your DIRECTV received (Google TV can search everything from the program guide to your PVR stash), there's Google Chrome -- front and center on the apps menu.
Since Chrome is on board, you'll be able to enjoy the same Web content you do on your computer. That also means anything which runs on the "Chrome platform" -- extensions and the Web Store's upcoming assortment of apps and games -- should also work. While they're not demoed, it's interesting to see Netflix and Pandora apps on the menu as well.
It's an interesting look at what Google TV is all about. Check out the video and share your impressions in the comments!
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Google Chrome to Phone
Google Chrome to Phone
Google Chrome to Phone extension and Android app (Android 2.2 only)
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Autofill for Google Chrome (BETA)
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Chrome's beta version can now fill out long web forms for you in just one click. A Google software engineer, James Hawkins, demos the new feature and shows how to add and manage personal information, or disable the feature entirely. You can install Chrome's beta channel here: www.google.com
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From: googlechrome
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Video: GMail now supports drag-and-drop for downloading file attachments, too
A while back, Google coders introduced drag-and-drop uploading in GMail (provided you were using a supported browser like Chrome), and there was much rejoicing. Today, they've introduced its counterpart: drag-and-drop downloading of attachments.
It might not sound like a big deal, but it's actually quite nice to be able to grab a file and pull it down directly to a specific folder on your desktop without having to deal with a "save as" dialog. It's the kind of functionality that Google hopes will help make web apps feel more like traditional desktop apps -- and make them more appealing to those who have been slow to adopt.
And, hey, if nothing else it's a nice way around Chrome's sub-par download manager -- maybe some day that'll get some love, too.
Awesome Screenshot Captures, Annotates, and Uploads Screenshots in Google Chrome
Google Chrome: If you're looking for an easy way to screenshot web pages from within Google Chrome, Awesome Screenshot is a versatile Chrome screenshot tool. More »
Opera and Google Chrome Hitler Parody
Hitler thinks that Chrome, his favorite browser, is the fastest. But he is about to discover that he is wrong, and his generals will experience his wrath!
Google Chrome Extensions and Accessibility
Rachel Shearer an engineer from Google's Accessibility Engineering team discusses how developers can incorporate accessibility best practices when designing their extensions. Rachel also presents ChromeVis, an extension she created for users with low vision.
You can find more information on ChromeVis at https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/halnfobaneppemjnonmmhngbfifnafgd
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Video: Chrome OS login options
Chrome OS will provide three basic options: signing in to an existing Google account (Apps for domains accounts are supported), create a new account, or browse without signing in.
Take the jump to check out the videos of the different login options!
Video: An early look at Chrome OS booting
Over the next few days, I'm going to share screenshots and videos from my compile. My build uses the "plain vanilla" x86-generic hardware overlay, and runs reasonably well on my Gateway LT21 netbook. I'm running from a crappy, generic USB flash drive -- and I'm fairly certain the momentary hiccups I experience would go away if I moved to a faster SD card, flash drive, or SSD.
So without further ado, take the jump and have a look at part 1: the boot process!
4-way HTML5 speed test: Firefox 3.7 faster than Internet Explorer 9 (video)
Following on from last night's IE9 vs. Chrome 6 comparison, I've now pitched all four of the major Windows-based browsers against each other. On the same computer! At the same time! (God bless technology.)
As you will see from the video, Chrome (even with hardware acceleration turned on via command line switches) is in a distant last place, miles behind both Firefox and IE. Opera competes well up to a point, but eventually gives way to Firefox and IE with 1000 fishies swimming about.
I state in the video that Opera is hardware accelerated, but I could be wrong (we've confirmed that they have hardware acceleration devs on staff, but don't know what's under Opera's hood just yet). Chrome also performs very poorly, even though it (apparently) has hardware acceleration. Incidentally, if you want to turn on hardware acceleration in Firefox 3.7, follow this guide.
Both Firefox and IE9 use Direct2D to utilize the GPU's rendering power -- so it's probably no surprise that they both show very similar results. It's most apparent when comparing CPU use; IE9 and FF3.7 are both miles ahead in performance, but both show the lowest CPU utilization!
Still, I'm certain Chrome will feature full hardware acceleration soon enough. The thing I'm most interested in is whether we'll see cross-platform hardware acceleration. Direct2D doesn't exist on either Mac or Linux -- so we'll see how it pans out! Meanwhile, if anyone wants to pit Opera or Chrome against Firefox on Linux, I'd be very interested to see the results.
ExtensionFM Turns the Web into Your Personal Jukebox [Downloads]
<!-- videoId: -6EtraV_TIQ --><!-- /videoId: -6EtraV_TIQ -->Chrome: If you missed our
The HTML5 Readiness Chart Highlights How Well Your Browser Handles the Future
We've said for a while that HTML5 will change the way you use the web, but not all browsers are ready for the big change. This interactive chart highlights which features are still missing in your browser of choice. More »