Both Net Applications and StatCounter have released their figures for browser market share for 2011 and it makes for largely unsurprising reading. Internet Explorer’s full share has dropped but it still maintains the top spot — a 52 percent share according to Net Applications and 39 percent according to StatCounter. Meanwhile, second place remains tantalizingly within reach for Chrome, which has made headway catching up with Firefox, whose growth had apparently stalled during 2011. According to Net Applications, Firefox held a 21.8 percent share of browser users this month, while Chrome reached 19.1 percent, up just under 8 percent and capping off a second year of impressive growth. Meanwhile, StatCounter pegs Google’s browser at second place for the end of the year, claiming 27.3 percent versus the 25.3 percent share grabbed by its vulpine rival. Unsurprisingly, the Windows Team Blog takes a different slant on recent browsing trends, trumpeting that its latest version, Internet Explorer 9, continues to grow on Windows 7. This is, however, balanced out by a corresponding drop in the users of its predecessor, IE 8. Better luck next year, eh, Microsoft?

Internet Explorer holds onto top browser crown while Chrome and Firefox tussle over second place originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Netflix has spent the past few years trying to get its streaming service on as many devices as possible, including TVs, Blu-ray players, game consoles, streaming set-top boxes, mobile phones and tablets. It’s a monumental undertaking, given the large number of different operating systems and development tools needed across a number of different CE manufacturers.

In a post on the Netflix Tech Blog, device UI engineers Matt McCarthy and Kim Trott shared a presentation that gives a peek behind the curtain in how it’s able to do so. The key is standards-based development using WebKit, JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS3.

Cutting-edge features, dynamic updates and A/B testing

Standardizing on WebKit enables Netflix to deliver to all the major browsers — including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari — without worrying about cross-platform development. By basing its software development kit (SDK) for consumer electronics manufacturers on WebKit, it can also use “cutting‐edge features like querySelector API, CSS transforms, CSS transitions & animations, localStorage, CORS, getters and setters, etc.”

More importantly, by relying on common web technologies, Netflix doesn’t have to develop individual applications for each device framework it comes across. It also can improve development cycles for user interfaces on connected devices. According to the presentation, Netflix typically updates its connected apps every two weeks. By using web standards, it doesn’t need to rely on CE manufacturers to push firmware updates to fix bugs or change the UI — it can do dynamic updates by itself.

Netflix also can dynamically test user interfaces, to see how users interact with them. With web standards they can redirect different customers to different web pages, feeding them different experiences. By doing so, they can figure out which interfaces are most effective.

Different classes of devices

There’s a wide range of available processing speed and memory, from CPUs that have 600 MHz to those with 3.2 GHz of processing power, and 88 MB of available memory to 512 MB. As a result, Netflix builds in flexibility to ensure that it doesn’t overload lower-powered devices with more advanced features.

Netflix currently has three tiers of devices based on their configurations, with the lowest tier having zero animation and small cache sizes. On the top end, devices have animations, large cache sizes and frequent pre-fetching of data. According to the presentation, all devices start in the middle tier and are then throttled up or down based on performance.

Paving the way for other app makers

Netflix’s focus on standards has allowed it to provide dynamically updated user interfaces on devices like the Sony PlayStation 3 and Sony Internet TVs, Nintendo Wii, Logitech Revue and the Boxee Box from D-Link. As more streaming video app makers try to tackle the issue of device fragmentation, Netflix’s approach could provide one way to streamline app creation and maintenance.

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Google’s Chrome web browser now counts 160 million users in 41 nations, the company announced during day two of Google I/O conference at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. That’s more than double the 70 million users of the web browser that Google reported at last year’s conference.

First released in beta to Microsoft XP users in September 2008, the Chrome browser has averaged one update every six weeks over the last year, said Senior VP of Chrome, Sundar Pichai.

Before getting into the big news (Chromebooks), Google announced new Chrome API features for developers, including speech support capabilities. For users, the added speech recognition features will enhance programs like Google Translate. Users can now speak into the  browser and Chrome will translate their phrase into a selected language.

Speed was another big talking point for the morning. “Speed is the fundamental underpinning behind Chrome,” Pichai told the crowd. The company announced upgrades that will result in a ten times performance increase for developers writing web programs. “But wait, there’s more,” Taylor said, announcing a 3-D feature for the Web GL platform.

Then a little birdy flew in to the conference center and stole the spotlight. The biggest news of the day went to Angry Birds, which announced it was finally coming to the web. And while users can access Angry Birds on any browser (even Internet Explorer), the company has created special levels– otherwise known as “Chrome realm” — for Chrome browser users.

Angry Birds for the Web will also be cached for offline use. So when your mobile goes dead and you’re on an airplane, you can still be launching birds at green pigs.

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MS Removal Tool is a rogue program that will try to make you believe it is some antivirus tool. It will infect your PC system without even you knowing it. It will also create random files in C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication Data (Windows XP) or C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication Data (Windows Vista and Windows 7). Removing MS Removal Tool will require some basic computer knowledge besides some 3rd party programs. You will find that there are many removal tools and methods out there. Some will work better than others. In any case, the two best removal programs I found so far: Malwarebytes and Rkill. Here How to Remove MS Removal Tool you will learn how to remove MS Removal Tool.

Malwarebytes is an antimalware tool that will clean malware and spyware from your PC. Rkill is a tool that is aimed to stop processes from those malware and spyware. So to remove those threats become easier after. Be sure to log into your computer using your normal user name and password. So you have to install such tools and run them in “Safe Mode with Networking Enabled”. Sometimes the MS Removal Tool will not allow you to download or install malware or spyware applications, if this happens then you may need to either rename the download file, or download them to a flash drive on a clean machine. Check Microsoft website to know how to enable “Safe Mode with Networking”, if you don’t know how to. Check here How to remove MS Removal Tool on XP to know how to remove MS Removal Tool on XP.

Be sure to run Malwarebytes in “Full Scan” mode. After the scan process, you can then select and delete any found viruses. Do not worry if you do get a warning message telling you that either Malwarebytes or Rkill are some serious threats and you should remove them! This is just the MS Removal Tool realizing you’re on to it and trying to prevent its own demise by giving false warnings. Such spyware (MS Removal Tool) will change the proxy settings part of Internet Explorer. So go to your LAN options and “uncheck” the proxy settings. Otherwise you won’t be able to access any websites. One of the tricky parts of removing this threat is replacing the HOST file on your computer. (usually located at :WindowsSystem32DriversetcHOSTS since the infection changes this file. Then, simply reboot your PC to normal mode. The virus is gone.

The new Internet Explorer 9 sees Microsoft doing a lot of catching up with other web browsers, but IE9 does have a few innovative features that you won’t find elsewhere, like the new “pinned sites” feature.

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Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 9, the first major update for Microsoft’s browser in nearly two years. Internet Explorer 9 is a huge leap forward for the IE line, bringing much-needed web standards support, better performance and hardware acceleration for faster graphics and animations on supported PCs.

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