HUA HIN, Thailand - Another new web
browser has been launched this week amid more hype
than it probably deserves in an already crowded
and hostile market. The software called RockMelt
claims to break the browser mould by being
designed to serve as a social networking hub as
opposed to a traditional web-surfing platform such
as the current market contenders, Internet
Explorer, Firefox and Chrome.
The social
networking aspirations of the Silicon Valley
startup have a tough time ahead if they are to be
successful; other browsers will simply incorporate
anything innovative into their own. Firefox
already has a number of Facebook add-ons and
Google's Chrome is very cloud friendly.
RockMelt does offer a few distinctive
features that would appeal to those that live in
their social networks, Facebook and Twitter are
built directly into it and it can also integrate
easily with web feeds and blogs. The browser is
also cloud based, which means that
you can login to your
personal settings, information and bookmarks from
anywhere rather than storing them locally on your
computer.
The software is based on
Google's Chromium platform, which will give it a
snappy performance with the added benefits of
support from the open source community, unlike
rivals IE and Apple's Safari. Initial reviews have
been mixed, with some users claiming that it lacks
innovation, as other browsers offer similar
products through add-ons; other users claim
RockMelt is a "must-have" for Facebook fans.
Search Another week rolls past
and another service from Google rolls out in the
search giant's ongoing efforts to make your life
more efficient and the company more affluent. This
week it is Google Instant Previews, which is a
tweak to the search engine aimed at increasing the
speed of a search.
Two months ago, the
company introduced the Instant feature, which
shows results as the search request is typed in;
the Preview takes that one step further by
offering a screenshot of the websites when you
roll over the results listings.
The
service appears to be selective, with Wikipedia
naturally featured prominently in nearly every
search tested. Websites with adult-orientated
themes or content have been excluded from Google's
latest gimmick. A small blue magnifying glass next
to the search result listing indicates whether a
preview is available for the website or not.
The concept is not new; Firefox has an
add-on that displays a snapshot thumbnail of the
website next to the search listing. Google claims
its new tool will make searching faster and more
efficient; however, it is likely that most people
will end up spending more time on Google's
ad-heavy pages than visiting the websites they
were actually looking for. The new service can be
tested out here
[http://www.google.com/landing/instantpreviews/].
Gaming A new version of the Call
Of Duty gaming series launched this week has
become the biggest entertainment launch ever with
the sale of 5.6 million copies within 24 hours.
Publisher Activision claimed that Call of Duty:
Black Ops raked in US$360 million on opening day
as hoards of gamers waited until midnight on
Monday to get their hands on the military action
shooter.
The previous record for a digital
entertainment title was for the same game, Call Of
Duty: Modern Warfare 2, released last year and
made $4.7 million on its first day. Video games
have now sealed their position as big earners in
the entertainment industry along side movies and
music.
Science Physicists at
CERN's (the European Organization for Nuclear
Research) Large Hadron Collider have been
celebrating this week as the experiments to
reproduce the conditions thought to exist at the
beginning of the universe have been generating
successful results.
The world's largest
machine, a 27-kilometer circumference atomic race
track built deep underground at the border of
France and Switzerland, has been used to
accelerate heavy lead protons and ions to almost
the speed of light then smash them into each other
to create smaller sub-atomic particles called
quarks and gluons.
The unprecedented
experiment achieved the highest temperatures
recorded on Earth, over 10 trillion degrees
celcius, a million times hotter than the center of
the sun. The "mini big-bangs" and quark-gluon
plasma produced in the LHC will take months of
analysis and data crunching.
Experiments
with lead ion beam collisions will continue until
December 6, after which the machine will be shut
down for two months for scheduled maintenance.
Live events can be viewed here
[http://atlas-live.cern.ch/].
Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
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