Help for All Users: More Complex Explanation

Google Started a New Format War

Google has now removed the Apple/iPod/iTunes version support from Chrome now to force its users  to use its own new format (WebM) or use Flash for video. This was designed to make trouble for the entire consumer electronic industry and its users.

Google is making trouble for Apple and its users, because Apple has decided not to allow Flash on its iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads due to it radically lowering battery life, to not populate its store with poor performing widget apps, and because it was only available several years after the iPhone and iPod Touch were released.

Google's newly preferred format (WebM) likely has patents on it, opening up those who use it on websites to likely but unknown liabilities, without any patent pools like, in the Apple/iPod/iTunes format, and has no hardware acceleration support in most devices, unlike the Apple friendly format, so it would destroy battery life as well. Google has also refused to pay potential patent royalties, for users of its new format, when the inevitable patent lawsuits begin.

Ironically this Apple friendly format is not owned by Apple or Microsoft (and both pay more for using the patents in software then they get from them) and every major consumer electronics manufacturer (including Google and many of its phone manufacturer partner companies) had not just agreed to it, but actually funded its development (and they all cross license each other as they are the patent holders).

Microsoft has recently added a free add-on to Google Chrome, that adds back in this removed video format support.

Other Web Browser and PDF Viewer Compatibility

For using secondary browsers, based on the Firefox Gecko or the Safari Webkit renderers, either use the latest version or a version that uses Gecko 1.8.1 or higher (released October 2006) which should provide a basic or minimal experience and Gecko 2.0 or higher (released March 2011) or Web Kit 533.16 or higher (released June 2010) which should provide an optimum experience. Note: some lesser known Web Kit browsers on Linux and the cross-platform Arora browser do a poor job of rendering my website.

And for third party PDF viewers, they must support PDF 1.4 (Adobe Reader 5.0) or higher. The PDF viewers do not have to be able to handle transparency. If you have Mac OS X 10.4 or higher or a recent version of Linux, you already have a PDF reader included that works better than any version of Adobe Reader  for any of my PDFs (and most other PDFs you will find on the Internet). For Windows users, most brand name PCs that came with Windows XP and higher already have a new enough version of Adobe Reader already installed on your computer.

The only reason you should run into PDFs that won't work with these PDFs readers is if they use Flash for PDF portfolios, but most of those PDF files will be in the ballpark of 50 MB and up, or you are working with PDFs produced by professional designers or for professional design uses.

Internet Explorer 9

Microsoft has just released version 9, of Internet Explorer, to the public, as it has made it through testing. I have been able to test it today, on my website, through a web browser testing service. The simple design, which is mostly yellow and one column works fine, with every version of Internet Explorer version 7 and higher. If you have Windows Vista or Windows 7, then you can upgrade Internet Explorer, to version 9.My website looks fine, in the advanced version, with Internet Explorer 9. It renders the fonts, layered backgrounds, transparency, angled backgrounds, rounded corners, and drop caps very well, but it does not support the text shadow, on the headings. I was unable to test the audio, that works, without requiring another program, on the virtual machine I used.

Another thing to check is the performance of Internet Explorer 9. If you can run Windows 7, with all its special effects, without any lag or slow downs, then it probably will work well, but if you bought a cheap laptop (or netbook), then it is likely that it will be slow (much slower than even the previous versions). One way to get it faster relatively cheaply is to add more RAM. I would recommend that you check the websites, that you frequent, to make sure they are compatible, as this browser has had a complete overhaul. Also the 64 bit version has much worse performance, to the point of being almost unusable, and should be avoided.

Security is improved greatly and the interface is now much more minimalistic - the controls are smaller, which gives you more space, for the web pages. If you use tabs, then you will likely have  trouble using more than a few of them at once, because of Microsoft wanting to give extra space, for web pages. Search is now built into the address bar, so that would make me concerned about how the web browser knows, if you are typing in an address, or a search term, without having to type in special commands. The fonts look much smoother, but some people with poor eyesight will find the text harder to read. Things have also been changed significantly, for accessibility features, used by those who are sight impaired, so they might need to update screen readers, for this new version of Internet Explorer.

New Developments: Don't Do Anything

I have learned some new things, after: finding some good design magazines online, having invested in some more software/services, and that some new techniques are now available, that have matured recently. The result of these new developments is, that I was able, to get the custom fonts and many of the special effects, on my website, to work, with Internet Explorer 6-8.

The performance appears fine software wise, bit I don't know how much RAM, or how fast a processor is necessary, for reasonable/usable performance. The custom fonts look much better, on Internet Explorer 7, or higher. I was able to come close, to making the ideal design available, similarly to how it appears, in most of the more popular new browser, in Internet Explorer 6-8, but the performance suffers noticeably, as well as there being 2 many layers, for all the background designs, to show up correctly.

I can now fully test, for every major version of Internet Explorer, from 6 on, and can now support most, of the modern features, on these versions. I still recommend upgrading your browser to a better one, because of the security and performance benefits alone.