Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox will now mark unencrypted connections as ‘not secure’

Image: Christiaan Colen, Flickr

By tech2 News Staff /  27 Jan 2017 , 14:25

Further securing the world wide web are browsers Firefox and Chrome. The two browsers will now mark all HTTP sites as not secure and use a more prominent visual indicator for the same.

The update will be available in Firefox 51 and Chrome 56, both of which must have automatically rolled out to most users by now.

HTTP is the default connection protocol used by most sites. The problem is that the data sent via this method is not secure. This includes login data, passwords, banking information, etc. Basically, data shared on HTTPS connections is encrypted. Data shared on HTTP connections on the other hand, isn’t encrypted.

Firefox will mark HTTP connections with a padlock that has a strike through it, Google Chrome will specifically label the site as ‘Not secure’ in the title bar itself.

Most browsers today do mark a secure connection as such. ArsTechnica, however, points out that browsers would not mark sites that used HTTPS frames within a HTTP page (for, say, login information) as not secure. The updates to Chrome and Firefox ensure this.

While most people are not security-minded enough to check if a site is secured or not, it’s important that we do check for this, particularly on sites that require any kind of personal, payment or login information.

Meet Opera Neon, the experimental browser that might replace your desktop

By Anirudh Regidi /  12 Jan 2017 , 19:09

Opera Neon is an alternative, experimental browser from Opera that wants to give us a glimpse into the future of computing.

It’s the design of Opera Neon that instantly catches your attention. While opening a traditional browser like Google Chrome or even regular Opera feels like you’ve opened an app, Opera Neon feels like a new interface for interacting with your computer. The only comparison that springs to mind is switching to, say, Unity Desktop after spending years in Gnome Desktop.

It feels like a desktop.

The whole UI is all bubbles. Speed dial is replaced with a handful of bubbles, each one representing a web page. New tabs show up as bubbles on the side of the browser and visual elements like progress bars are also bubbles.

Neon’s UI feels great. It’s visually pleasing and very distinct, especially after you come from the utilitarian efficiency of Chrome. I like the fact that browser tabs pop on the side rather than on top, it’s actually a more convenient place to put them, and in-browser split-screen modes, pop-out video playback and other such features are all nice to use.

My favourite feature is the snap-to-gallery feature. You tap the snap button on the browser, drag a box around whatever it is you want to capture and voila! A snapshot of the area you selected is automatically dumped in an easy-to-access tab. Better still, the image will also link to the source site, so a snapshot of a YouTube video will link to that YouTube video, for example.

I noticed that Neon took my desktop wallpaper as the browser background, this, and the overall design, add to the effect that you’re using a new desktop UI than something that is just a browser.

The large icons also mean that the UI is touch-friendly, so there’s no need to switch between desktop and tablet mode on devices like 2-in-1s.

All things considered, Neon is a great demo of what a browser can be.

It’s not as powerful as something like Chrome or Vivaldi (no extensions, tab and file management issues, etc.), but it’s a very pleasant, refreshing browser that I can see myself using while I laze about on the couch.

You can download Opera Neon here. Let us know what you think in the comments section below!

Google Chrome 55 will consume less RAM, promises Google

By tech2 News Staff /  10 Oct 2016 , 16:58

Google Chrome is a notorious resource hog. It’s been known to gobble up all the free RAM on your system and drain your battery at an alarming rate. Come December, and all this is set to change.

Chrome 55, which debuts on 6 December, will reportedly use an updated JavaScript engine,reports CNET. Google says that the updated engine uses much less RAM and that the benefits can amount to 50 percent more free RAM.

As far as most of the web-browsing world is concerned, however, they’d rather be using Chrome than any other browser. There are those who’ll stick to the default browser, be it Safari or Internet Explorer (IE) or even Edge, but those folk are unlikely to care about things like RAM consumption and battery life.

On a side note, using Safari on macOS or Edge on Windows 10 will give you better battery life and consume less RAM on that platform than Chrome. In fact, Opera goes so far as to claim that their browser, in battery saver mode, can knock the socks of any other browser in the battery life department.

That said, Chrome’s newfound frugality should have little impact on your battery life or browsing performance. If you’re on a device that’s struggling for

Top 10 Internet tips and tricks

Take advantage of tabbed browsing

Take full advantage of tabbed browsing on all Internet browsers. While reading an article or browsing a website, you may come across a link that interests you. Any link to another page can be opened in a new tab so it does not interrupt your reading. To perform this action, hold down the Ctrl key and left-click the link. If you have a mouse with a wheel, click the link by depressing the wheel instead of rolling it. Either of the methods opens a link in a new window.

Tip: To open an new blank tab, press Ctrl + T at the same time.

You don't need the http:// portion of a web page

When entering an Internet address you do not need to type http:// or even www. in the address. For example, if you wanted to visit Computer Hope you could just type computerhope.com and press enter. To make things even quicker, if you are visiting a .com address you can type computerhope and then press Ctrl + Enter to type out the full http://www.computerhope.com address.

Quickly move between the fields of a web page

If you are filling out an online form, e-mail, or other text field you can quickly move between each of the fields by pressing the Tab key or Shift +