Browsers

In which Dave learns how to “tablet” (and also makes a Chrome plugin)

I got a new tablet a few weeks ago (it’s an Acer Switch Alpha 12), and I’ve really enjoyed it. I never thought I’d be a “touch screen guy”, but it’s so much more comfortable to lay on the couch with tablet in hand than it was to balance my big old Dell laptop on my knees. At the risk of sounding cliché, it’s actually changing my life. I’m reading more and spending less time tied to the computer in my office.

Windows 10 works great on a tablet. Everything is well-designed and the transition from mouse and keyboard to touch and back is pretty seamless. Even that giant full-screen Start menu everyone made fun of in Windows 8 starts to make sense when you’re using your PC as a tablet. The Universal apps (formerly “Metro”) are comfortable to use in tablet mode, too; I’m particularly fond of the Fitbit and Facebook apps.

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IE dev channel fail

I was all excited about the IE development channel browser, downloaded the (150 MB!) installer and saw this…

ie-dev-channel

I appreciate what the IE team is trying to do, but don’t assume web developers are, or want to be, Windows developers. At least they should have been up front about the fact that other software is required, and what it’s used for.

The Web at 25

March 12 was the 25th anniversary of Tim Berners-Lee‘s proposal for what would become the World Wide Web. The Web has changed humanity more than almost any other invention of the 20th century. Information has never been so universal, so immediate, and so free.

Tim Berners-Lee knew he had something revolutionary, but others weren’t so far-sighted. The first generation of web designers took the new medium and turned it into something commercial and (given the state of the technology) beautiful, but they made some bad decisions that still affect us 20 years later.

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