Items tagged with Chromium
Microsoft officially launched the new, stable version of the Chromium-infused Edge browser to the public three weeks ago. At the time, Edge was relegated to only x86 devices despite the fact that the company publicly launched its ARM64-powered Surface Pro X around the same time. That meant that early adopters of the Surface Pro X were left out in the cold by Microsoft and had to run Chromium Edge in emulation mode. That changes today with the release of Edge 80 which supports Windows 10, Windows 8.x and Windows 7 along with Windows Server 2008 R2 and later. The most important addition with Edge 80 is that it finally brings native ARM64 support to the stable channel, after...
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Google Chrome may be the most popular browser out there, but Windows 10 users know that it can be a resource hog. This lack of regard for efficiency is particularly evident when running Chrome on a Windows 10 notebook that is on battery power. Microsoft may have a solution that will end the power and resource-hogging that Chrome is known for. Last summer, Microsoft noted that it may be possible to reduce Chrome's battery use by eliminating the unnecessary disk caching when watching videos. The caching of video during playback keeps the disk in an active state and consumes power. Microsoft has a second commit that shows it plans to add a check to verify if the device is running on battery. The...
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While Microsoft has closed one door (Windows 7), it has opened another one with respect to web browsers (Microsoft Edge). As promised, Microsoft has made available the public/stable release of its Chromium-based Edge web browser. Microsoft first made its intentions known that it would switch to Chromium back in December 2018, thus leaving behind the EdgeHTML engine. That move drew swift backlash from Mozilla -- the makers of Firefox -- but Microsoft continued development over the past year. After a steady stream of developer and public betas, the all-new Edge browser is ready for action. Due to the fact that Edge is based on Chromium -- the same engine that powers the world's most...
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Back in December, we reported on Microsoft's policy to get customers updated to the new, Chromium-infused version of the Edge browser. At the time, Microsoft indicated that the all-new Edge browser would be pushed automatically to allWindows 10 users in January 2020 via Windows Update. The only way that users would have been able to avoid getting the new version -- if they didn't want it -- was to install Microsoft's Blocker Toolkit for Edge. Today, however, Microsoft is clarifying its position on forced Edge updates and who it will affect going forward. Lots of speculation about automatic updates of the new Edge on Windows 10. We updated our documentation to make it clear that...
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Brave is a company that was co-founded by ex-Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich after he was booted from the organization in 2014. Brave today launched version 1.0 of its browser, and it is available for most platforms including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. Brave is launching into a market that is ripe with competition and is trying to differentiate itself from other browsers by positing itself as a fast option that is focused on privacy with strong default settings. The browser also has cryptocurrency-focused private ads that allow users to support content creators but promises to share no personal information about the user. To encourage users to watch Brave's ads, it has a Brave Rewards...
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Google Chrome has been focused on speed since the very beginning, with the browser aiming to open and load pages as fast as possible. Google now wants to let users know when a web page they are trying to visit typically loads slowly and at the same time, wants to reward sites that deliver fast experiences. In the future, Chrome may identify sites that usually load fast or slow with clear badges. The Chromium blog notes that the identification may take several forms and that it plans to experiment with different options to determine which gives the most value to users. Badging will identify sites that are designed in a way that makes them generally slow by looking at historical load latencies....
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Microsoft took us all by surprise when announced that its EdgeHTML-based Edge browser would be getting a ground-up redesign to leverage Google's Chromium engine. For Microsoft, it was a move that was meant to bolster the appeal of its first-party browser, which has been languishing far behind Google Chrome after once dominating the scene throughout much of the late 1990s and early 2000s with Internet Explorer. The new Chromium-backed Microsoft Edge browser has up until this point been available in both Canary, Dev and Beta channels, but the company has now announced that the first release candidate build has been released. The release candidate is available for both Windows (Windows...
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Google continues its steady march forward with the advancement of the world's most popular web browser: Chrome. The company this week launched the latest release with Chrome 77. Chrome 77 is available for all major computing platforms including Windows, Linux, macOS, Android and iOS. One of the biggest features is the addition of tab sharing, which will allow you to send pages to multiple devices. While you have the ability to browse open tabs on your other signed-in devices, this new feature makes it a bit easier to send over tabs if you want to switch from your desktop to say, your tablet for lounging on the sofa. The feature can be invoked by clicking/tapping on the menu button and selecting...
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Microsoft raised quite a few eyebrows when it announced that it would no longer develop the Edge browsing using the homegrown EdgeHTML engine, and would instead adopt Google's Chromium. Browser competitor Mozilla was quick to bash the move, saying that Microsoft was caving into Google and making it easier for the search giant to further control the web. Undeterred, Microsoft has continued to develop the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser, releasing Dev and Canary builds for Windows and macOS. Now, the company is ready to take the next step with the release of the Beta channel to the public. According to Microsoft's Joe Belfiore, the preview builds of Microsoft Edge were download...
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When Microsoft decided to move its browser to Chromium, significant changes were bound to happen with Microsoft working on code for Chromium. One of the things that Microsoft is working on improving for Chromium is battery life for devices when users are working away from an outlet. A new experimental feature is in testing that will improve battery life by disabling media caching to disk. The change lessens disk activity allowing the browser to consume less power. Microsoft had the battery life lead in browsers with Edge, and it is looking to extend its battery life lead to its new Chromium-based browser as well. The idea for the new feature that reduces battery consumption came from Microsoft's...
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Earlier this month, links to the Microsoft Edge Canary and Dev Channels for macOS leaked early. The spread of the Chromium-based Edge browser to macOS came months after the browser was first released for Windows 10. However, that early leak for macOS wasn't officially supported by Microsoft... until now. Microsoft today officially announced the public availability of Edge for macOS vis the Canary Channel. For those that are not up-to-date on Chromium channels, Canary builds are pushed daily and will likely be full of bugs. The Dev Channel is updated weekly and is generally more stable. Then there's the Beta Channel, which offers the most stable experience for early testers. "Microsoft...
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Microsoft recently announced a number of interesting features for its upcoming Chromium-based version of Microsoft Edge. The features are primarily aimed at helping businesses and enhancing privacy. Microsoft’s new version of Edge includes a new “IE Mode”, Collections, and web tracker blocking. Microsoft has specifically designed several things for businesses. Businesses are notorious for their slow adoption of new technology. Microsoft wanted to make the transition to Edge as seamless as possible. Their new “IE Mode” will allow businesses to load old sites directly into the new web browser. The mode will utilize Internet Explorer’s rendering engine and load...
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Microsoft is hard at work on its new Chromium-based browser and delivered its first Chromium-based browser test build about a month ago. However, a big issue with the Chromium-based browsers has been discovered on Windows 10, and it can seriously impeded performance. The issues was brought to light by browser maker Vivaldi and a Google researcher; for its part, Microsoft is working on a fix for the issue. The browser performance problem has to do with a Windows 10 security feature, but it's unclear if end-users of Chromium-based browsers are affected by the issue. The performance issue did pose enough of a challenge to Vivaldi that it appealed to Microsoft and Google for a fix. Microsoft's...
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Microsoft surprised many when it decided that was going to abandon its homegrown EdgeHTML rendering engine for Edge in favor of Google Chromium. The move particularly incensed Firefox developer Mozilla, which said that Microsoft was “officially giving up” and conceding to Google. In the four months since that initial announcement, we’ve learned more about the “new” Microsoft Edge browser, and early test builds of the browser have even leaked to the internet in recent weeks. Now, the company has opened up its official Microsoft Edge Insider Channel for those that want to legitimately test the new browser. Microsoft Edge is currently available...
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