For the first time in the history of the web, Internet Explorer has lost it's crown as the most used browser in a major territory; Europe. That's right, more Europeans as of late 2010 are using a browser other than IE.

For years Internet Explorer's dominance (and at first somewhat solitary existence at the top) has been chipped away at. Firstly by Mozilla's Firefox browser which was the first real alternative to IE worth using and more recently by Google's ever growing in popularity Chrome browser.

Towards the end of 2008 IE had a share of about 51% in Europe compared to 37.5% at the end of 2010. It's clear from these figures that in Europe at least IE is taking something of a beating. According to StatCounter a popular website statistics company Firefox took 38.11% of the browser market in Europe during December 2010 making it for the first time the most used browser, although only just. However the picture isn't as clear as it may first appear to be. In the last year despite now over taking IE, Firefox has also lost a very small fraction of it's market share, down 0.5%.

Where IE has taken a real hit is in the amount of people now using Google's Chrome browser. In the last year a alone, Chrome has seen a surge in the amount of people using it, up approximately 10% to 15% overall market share. This means people have left IE for Chrome and not Firefox.

StatCounter CEO, Aodhan Cullen said "This appears to be happening because Google's Chrome is stealing share from Internet Explorer while Firefox is mainly maintaining its existing share". The uptake in Chrome usage may be down to the EU requiring Microsoft to present to users a browser ballot screen, thus offering a choice of browser to the user to install. Quite why people are choosing Chrome over IE or Firefox isn't clear, but it can't be a coincidence that since being forced to offer this ballot screen IE has taken a hit in Europe.

Despite this bad news for IE, it is still by far the most widely used browser on a global scale. IE accounts for 45% of all browser usage on the web, compared to 31% for Firefox and 15.5% for Chrome. However on a global scale like in Europe the real winner is Chrome. It's usage globally is up approximately 10% over the last year while IE and Firefox have both experienced drops with IE dropping around 10% of it's share over the last year which is somewhat inline with the increased usage for Chrome. Over the coming year expect IE usage to fall further, despite IE9 being released and Chrome usage to storm upwards as in 2010. By the end of 2011 it could be close or in some territories be the 2nd most popular browser out there.

Interestingly this article has no mention of Opera so far. That's because Opera is still mulling around somewhere at the bottom at around 5% market share. A pit it's been in for a number of years now. Despite all the fuss and complaining Opera made about having a ballot screen, it seems to have done nothing to help them out and instead may even have helped Chrome get to where it is now. To put things into a little perspective Chrome was released almost two and a half years ago and already has 15.5% of the global browser market. Opera on the other hand has been around since the end of 1996 and can still only muster up 5% of the market.

It's fair to say that Google is on a mission, a mission of speed. For a while now Google have been announcing audacious projects which aim to speed up everyones web viewing experience. Over the last year they have announced plans to introduce 1Gbps fibre to the home and a more efficient and faster web protocol, SPDY. Speeding up the web doesn't stop there however as both these technologies focus on the transmission of data and not the actual data being transmitted. With images accounting for around 65% of the data transmitted between web page views according to Google, it makes sense to improve upon the efficency of image compression while retaining a good degree of quality.

This is probably why Google's Product Manager, Richard Rabbat has announced via the Google blog that enginners at the company have been working on a new image format called WebP (pronounced Weppy) which aims to reduce file sizes while still retaining image quality. While testing the new format, Google looked at around 1 million jpg images and convert them to the new WebP format and noted on average a 39% reduction in file size. Images converted straight to WebP can expect even lower file sizes while retaining the same degree of image quality as JPG provides for most web images.

Although the new format doesn't support an Alpha channel (transparancy), Google say that a future update to the format will provide this feature, something that JPG can't do. Currently web designers have to use PNG or GIF for transparancy. The format is also flexible enough to allow a variety of meta data to be embedded into the image, something Googles search engine will no doubt make use of.

Every one who uses the web could benifit from this new format particluarly those who use bandwidth strangled mobile networks. If Google can get the likes of Firefox and Microsoft on board there's no reason why WebP should't be a big success in the future. The mobie ISPs might also thank Google for reducing their costs since less data has to be transmitted to mobile devices. It will probbly be some years before this new format takes off but Google is already planning a patch for it's WebKit based browser Chrome that will see the browser have native support for the new format.

Link: Google WebP Gallery

Cable TV and Broadband provider Virgin Media today announced that it will be trialling a new Video On Demand player for the web and mobile devices. The service provider announced that 'hundreds of hour's of on demand content will be avaialble for the beta trail period including ITV, LIVING, Disney, Cartoon Network, National Geographic, Discovery, MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.

Cindy Rose, executive director of digital entertainment at Virgin Media said: "MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon already offer some hugely popular shows on our TV on demand platform so we’re delighted to be expanding our line-up across all three screens. We continue to explore innovative new ways to bring our customers’ favourite content to them and, with Virgin Media Player, we’re making sure they’re spoilt for choice."

Virgin Media customers who subscribe to their XL TV package and who also have broadband with them will be able to try the new VOD player out from today by going to www.virginmedia.com/player and registering their details. The press release did not make it clear as to which mobile platforms will be supported but a logical guess would be iPhone and Android devices first followed by Symbian devices later on. Virgin Media plans to fully release the service later this year after the beta period.

OnLive the cloud based gaming service that promises to stream games over the Internet has gone live. The new service as Bit-Cast has previously mentioned will allow game play on virtually any device that has a decent broadband connection. Thus removing the need for expensive hardware and makes gaming ubiquitous across all platforms, be it Windows, Mac or Linux and with the addition of the onLive micro console due for launch this year the service will be accessible from nothing more than a television. The ramifications of such a service could be profound on the gaming industry in the coming years as it has the potential to completely and utterly change the way consumers play games and how developers make and publish games.

onLive CEO and founder Steve Perman had the following to say about the launch, "This launch is just the beginning for the OnLive platform. We'll be rolling out new features, capabilities and performance improvements, continually adding new content along with the latest releases, and extending the service to more people,". He continued by saying, "Today we're taking the first step toward a future where video game content is increasingly free from the restrictions of device and location, while showcasing the ability to instantly play the latest, most advanced games at the touch of a button."

To mark the launch, onLive have announced the 'onLive Founding Members Program' which will basically offer the service for free for one year to those who showed the service a bit of faith and signed up to it back when it was still in Beta. However it's a time/availability limited offer, so if you did sign up to the service months back then you'll have to be quick to get this great offer. As an added bonus the second year will be just $4.95 per month instead of $15 which is a pretty good deal if you ask me.

Now to the nitty gritty...what games can actually be played at launch? The simple answer would be there are around 23 launch titles including the following:

• aaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity
• Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft)
• Batman: Arkham Asylum (Square Enix / Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• Borderlands (Take Two Interactive Entertainment)
• Brain Challenge (Gameloft)
• Defense Grid: Gold (Hidden Path)
• Dirt 2 (Codemasters)
• Dragon Age: Origins (Electronic Arts)
• FEAR 2: Project Origin (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• Just Cause 2 (Square Enix)
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment) demo now full version available at official launch
• 6/29
• Madballs in Babo: Invasion (Playbrains)
• Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts)
• MLB 2K10 (2K Sports)
• NBA 2K10 (Take Two Interactive Entertainment)
• Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Ubisoft)
• Puzzle Chronicles (Konami)
• Red Faction Guerrilla (THQ)
• Shatter (Sidhe)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction (Ubisoft)
• Trine (Frozenbyte)
• Unreal Tournament III (Epic)
• World of Goo (2DBoy)

More titles will be added in the coming months, but expect the following games to be released to the service very soon:

• Alpha Protocol (SEGA)
• Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (Ubisoft)
• Darksiders (THQ)
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Square Enix)
• DRIVER San Francisco (Ubisoft)
• F.E.A.R.3 (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• Homefront (THQ)
• Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days (Square Enix)
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• MLB 2K10 (2K Sports)
• Red Faction: Armageddon (THQ)
• Shaun White Skateboarding (Ubisoft)

For a demo of the service "working", check out the video below of it being shown off on Apple's iPad, via WiFi.

Video by touchArcade.com

It remains to be seen how popular this service will be or even if it will work as intended but if the video above is anything to go by then this could simply be huge. Also consider this, if the technology didn't show potential then why would  so many large game developers invest the time, expense and risk of getting their content onto the onLive platform? It's a huge risk for them to take and if it wasn't a promising technology then there wouldn't be so many developers on board from the off, right? With over 25 developers on board, including some big names such as Electronic Arts, Take Two Interactive Software, THQ, Ubisoft, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Square Enix, SEGA, Capcom and Konami Digital Entertainment, there must be something in it for them.

Also consider the fact that onLive could kill game piracy, something which is considered the scourge of the market and is blamed for decreasing games sales. What's more is that developers only have to develop for one platform instead of multiple platforms like Windows, Mac, Xbox, PS3 and so on. The net result could be a far more streamlined development process, hence quicker to market games with fewer development costs. The savings could then be passed on to us the consumer. Of course I'm speculating here, but it makes sense to think this way. One platform, one expense, one set of problems.

What's certain is that the gaming industry has and will be changed forever and it will be interesting in the coming months and years to see how things pan out.

For more information see the official onLive blog and press release.

Microsoft has ended months of speculation and rumour by announcing a revamped and slimmer Xbox 360 console today at E3. The redesigned console ditches the boring beige colour of the original Xbox in favour of a nightmare to photograph, ultra shiny black finish. The console also looks much more menacing and angular, but in a good way as you can see.

As it's an updated console and not actually a new architecture there isn't a whole lot to talk about, but the new console does sport built in wireless connectivity of the 'n' variety no less. Built in wireless is something that Xbox 360 users have been craving for since the launch of the original and something the PS3 fanbois have been poking fun at for far to long now, well not any more. As well as this the new slim version features the following:

• Touch sensitive buttons
• 250GB hard drive which is also swappable
• Kinect port, this port will provide power and data transmission to and from Kinect (formally natal). Original Xbox 360 consoles will need to use one USB port for each operation.
• Quieter running, reportedly whisper quiet (uses one larger fan as opposed to two on the original boxes).
• Five USB ports, two of which are on the front
• Integrated CPU/GPU based on a 45nm manufacturing process.

Although it is much smaller the console still makes use of an external, albeit smaller more efficient 'power brick', which may disappoint some. What will also disappoint is the lack of a Blu-Ray drive. For months rumours have been circulating that Microsoft would build Blu-Ray support into their console, but hope of that happening any time soon has all but vanished.

What won't disappoint is the fact that gamers in the US can get their hands on the new Xbox 360 (that's it's official name) as early as this week for $299. Gamers in the UK/EU can get their hands on one from July 16th.

This will be short but sweet. Tomorrow (May 22nd) will mark 30 years since the release of pacman, probably one of the most famous and fondly remembered games ever created. Despite being 30 years old it's still as addictive today as it has always been. In their traditional style Google have decided to honor this historic event by replacing their home page logo with one that pays homage to pacman (see below).

Nothing new here you might think as Goolge regularly updates it's pages to mark some special event, Google calls affectionately calls them 'doodles'. The awesome difference this time around though is that you can actually play pacman right on Google's home page and navigate a Google logo maze. Just go to Google and wait for the classic music to kick in and your good to go with your keyboard arrow keys.

You will also notice that the 'I'm feeling lucky' button has been replaced by an 'Insert Coin' button. Clicking that will start the game right away instead of waiting for it to auto start. But not only that, if you click the button again you can play two player pacman! Awesome or what? The second player controls the game using the WASD keys.

Enough said I think, get to it people!

Does Google rock, or does Google rock?

No industry is safe from Google at the moment with the search and advertising colossus dipping it's fingers into almost any market it can right now. Until now though the gaming industry has been pretty safe and largely overlooked by Google but if a company job posting is anything to go by then that stance could soon be changing.

TechCrunch has reported that over at Google's Job listing page the company is looking to employ a "Product Management Leader, Games", which strongly indicates that the company is going to be dipping it's toes into the gaming industry. They have already bought Israeli game developer LabPixies and hired Mark DeLoura who was Nintendo's Lead Engineer as Developer Advocate for Games. Such activity strongly suggests that Google are taking a serious look at the gaming industry after previous attempts to enter the market fell flat. Whether Google are aiming to develop causal online and mobile games or full blown 3D games is unclear. By my guess if this whole story turns out to be true is that Google will go down the latter route at some point; Google's an ambitious company after all but it makes sense for them to first get some content out for the Android platform and get a feel for things before offering full blown 3D games.

According to the posting, the job applicant will need to be an "experienced senior leader who will be responsible for developing Google's games commerce product strategy". Not only this but the applicant will also need to have experience in the "online content business", suggesting that whatever they are upto will be cloud based as you'd expect from Google.

So what's the deal? The deal in my view is Android and Chrome OS in particular. If one looks at the markets Google is trying to enter and think about how they might all be related you might see where Google are heading.  For cloud based services to function (Google's products rely heavily on cloud computing) as intended on Google's Chrome OS they will require a super fast broadband connection, that's a key requirement for the future of Chrome OS or any other web centric platform that relies heavily on cloud based solutions. 

Hence to achive this and ensure the infrastructure existis, Google announces plans to enter the ISP market touting 1Gbps speeds. Google also has plans to enhance the HTTP protocol with it's own SPDY protocol. Initial tests have been encouraging and have shown significant speed increases over the aging HTTP protocol. Chrome OS is merely a window or access point to next generation web content and services, some call the whole notion Web 3.0. It's weakest point is the Internet connection it will interface with. If Google can provide and ensure a stable, fast and reliable connection to Chrome OS a world of possibilities for the platform will open up in the years to come. Which leads into the world of cloud gaming, a market that has the potential for huge revenue and one that could reinvigorate the gaming industry.

Chrome OS has been shot down by gamers as it's a completely web centric platform, hence no or little locally installed content. If Google can provide a cloud based gaming service to the masses that is similar to onLive albeit a trimmed down version then they can make it so much more of an attrative option to potential users of the platform, as I doubt your run of the mill flash games will appeal to hardcore gamers. That's all Google need is the platform for publishers to distribute their content on. Not only this but Google in their traditional style would probably offer the service for free or a nominal fee at the very least because remember the service can be provided over Google's fibre network with minimal overheads/costs to Google themselves.

onLive in contrast is at the mercy of the ISPs to provide their services that onLive requires. Many ISPs throttle or limit their customers speeds when they consume too much bandwidth. No doubt, a lot of ISPs will frown at the prospect of onLive providing a constant stream of bandwidth intensive content to consumers.

If Google can figure out a way of streaming game content over the Internet as onLive claim to have then there is no reason why they couldn't offer a similar service, no reason at all. After all Google has already ported quake 2 to run in the browser with HTML 5 and javascript and achive 30FPS even at this early stage. If anyone can Google can it seems.

One thing's for sure, good or bad, Google continues to intrigue.

BT announced today that it has entered into a partnership with OnLive Inc. The deal will mean that BT will be the official and exclusive supplier of the game streaming service when it launches in the UK, thus stealing a march on rivals Virgin Media who currently have the biggest cable broadband network in the UK. BT plan to bundle the onLive services with their own broadband packages.

The company also cemented it's commitment to onLive by taking a 2.6 percent stake in the cloud based gaming company. BT will announce further details later in the year, however it is quite likely that the service will end up being integrated into BT's on-demand TV service 'BT Vision' in some form or another.

Gavin Patterson, CEO of BT Retail welcomed the partnership and said: "Entertainment is going to be at the heart of what we offer customers in the future. The partnership with OnLive complements our existing BT Vision service. It's great for our customers - they'll have access to a huge catalogue of games, available instantly on their TV or PC without expensive hardware. And it's great for BT - it will enhance our premium broadband position and we'll be entering into a market that's worth more than £2billion."

As previously discussed, onLive is a potentially market changing gaming platform that will provide gamers with a new way of buying and playing video games. Instead of downloading or installing content to their PCs or Macs, onLive allows players to stream game content in real time over the Internet. It has the potential to change the distribution model of games forever.

All game content is processed in onLive's data centres before being packaged up and streamed out to the user via proprietary video streaming technologies developed by onLive over the past seven years. onLive say that the proprietary compression algorithms used for streaming game content will give the player lag free gaming providing they live within 1000 miles of a data centre and that their broadband connection is a sufficient speed. This concept of playing and distributing game content is hotly contested by many who are sceptical that the service can work.

Despite this onLive has gone through a successful beta period says the company and is all set to launch in the US this summer for $14.99 per month, sans game purchases.

The beauty of onLive is that it will have a catalogue of games from many of the worlds best known publishers and will allow gameplay on virtually any platform be it PC, Mac, Linux or via a TV. Since games aren't processed on any local machine the user doesn't need expensive hardware to run the games they wish to play. The other great thing with this concept is that all the games can be played as the developer intended; with all graphics settings maxed out.

onLive CEO, Steve Perlman had the following to say about the BT, onLive partnership: "The UK market is extremely important to OnLive and our videogame publishing partners as we expand into Europe. We view BT as the ideal UK partner. As gamers are moving increasingly to online game distribution, OnLive delivers video games as a pure form of online media, playable instantly on almost any video-capable device attached to the internet. The implications are nothing short of transformative to video games and in time, all interactive media. OnLive is delighted to be pioneering this revolutionary technology in the UK together with BT".

In a move that many developers will raise an eyebrow at, Google have decided to omit the showing of http:// in the address bar of their latest dev build of Chrome. Although this is quite a change to make it seems that Google decided to not express much info about the change publicly as the lack of http:// in the address bar was filed as a bug by one sharp eyed user.

One developer replied to the bug report stating that the apparent bug is in fact a feature of the browser. Naturally this invoked a lengthy discussion regarding the removal of http:// the workhorse protocol of the web that has been around since year dot.  Naturally many developers and comments made  aren't in favour of the omittance and I can understand why.

Many fear that omitting http:// will break a lot of applications when people try to copy and paste a URL, or when some web apps try to autoparse a URL. Some need http:// in the URL to do whatever it is they're trying to do. However Google say that this should not be the case, as http:// is added to the clipboard when the URL is copied. This is not a perfect solution though, as some systems may not fully support using the clipboard in this manner. It remains to be seen how effective this solution will be if Goolge decide to keep it. It will be interesting to see if this feature will be seen in Googles Web centric OS, Chrome OS when it is released later this year. Other protocols such as ftp:// and https:// seem unaffected and remain viewable in the address bar.

My view on this is that Google should revert back to showing http:// as not including it will cause people to be come lazy when typing URLs, not to mention that fact that it breaks years of standardisation that we have all become used to as users, never mind it being technically correct to add http:// to a web url. Some  applications as stated previously require http:// and having a system where people don't have to type it will induce a situation where usability is affected.

Source: OSNews.com

Epic has confirmed that the much loved and massively successful series of games, Gears of War will reach it's climatic end on April 5th 2011 in the US (and Asia) when it's third and final instalment comes to the Xbox 360. The first two blockbuster games have sold more than 12 million copies and continue to draw people to the Xbox 360 platform. Microsoft and Epic are looking to whip up a frenzy before the game's release next year by announcing it early. Epic say the third game will tie up all the loose ends from the first two games and bring the story to a close one way or the other.

Gamers in Japan will receive the game on April 7th while those in Europe can get their hands on it the following day on the 8th. The really awesome news about Gears of War 3 is that it will feature 4 player co-op throughout the campaign, allowing players to play as Baird or Cole. Now that's just spiffy.

There will also be several enhancements to online multiplayer including better region filtering which will limit laggy gaming. GOW3 will also see the return of some of the original multiplayer maps that gamers enjoyed previously.

Epic's design director Cliff Bleszinski said, "When we released 'Gears of War' more than three years ago, we set out to tell the world an unforgettable story of bravery and sacrifice in the face of insurmountable odds, and a year from now, players will get the chance to experience the final chapter in the story of Marcus Fenix and his companions in Delta Squad. This is definitely the biggest and most dramatic chapter yet in the 'Gears of War' saga, and we can't wait to deliver it."

The third instalment will see Marcus and his Delta squad team fight to save what's left of humanity after the last of the human cities has been destroyed by the Locust armies and the Lambent. Of course to do this one needs the right equipment which is why you'll find some new weapons in Gears of War 3.

Gamers will get the satisfaction of pummelling the Locus with rounds from a double-barrel shotgun. The new shotgun is more powerful than the original but on the flip side takes longer to reload. In addition to this there will also be the Pendulum Lancer, which in the Gears universe is the model before the Chainsaw Lancer which is the gun of choice in the original two games. Don't worry about the lack of chainsaw however, as the gun features a large blade instead.

Click to enlarge

The game will also see the return of Anya from the original games, fighting along side Marcus as part of Delta Squad. It's not clear if she'll be a playable character, however it will be the first time that a female character has been seen fighting in Gears of War.

As part of the  announcement, Microsoft and Epic have put together a little teaser trailer to whet our appetites for the game. The game looks awesome, can't wait, end of story...just watch the video :).

Let us know your child like excitement for Gears 3 by leaving a comment below. I know I can't wait for sure.

So you have the luxury of running a secondary monitor next to your primary one, which is great for dumping reference material on to while you work on something on the primary monitor. However by default when you set up two monitors in Windows, the wallpaper of the primary monitor will also be applied to the secondary monitor.

This can be annoying for two reasons: 1) You want a different wallpaper on that second monitor as a preference and 2) The two monitors may have different aspect ratios and so on the secondary monitor the wallpaper will either get squashed or cropped. The settings don’t appear to allow you to change the wallpaper of the second screen when you set up dual monitors, but in this short tutorial you will be shown how to achieve just this within Windows XP. It doesn’t involve any hacks to Windows or extra software. The process described below may be different for Windows Vista and 7...

1. After you have the two monitors set up, right click the desktop and go to 'properties'.
2. Click the 'Desktop' Tab
3. Click 'Customize Desktop'
4. Click the 'Web' Tab
5. Click 'New' and then 'Browse'
6. Navigate to where the wallpaper for the second monitor can be found, Click 'Open' and then 'OK' on the original screen.
7. Keep clicking 'OK' until all the windows are closed.
8. On the primary desktop you should now have the wallpaper displayed. Hover the cursor towards the top of the wallpaper and a menu bar will appear. Click and drag on the menu bar to move the wallpaper over to the secondary monitor.
9. On the left of this menu bar there is an arrow, click it and in the drop down menu click 'Cover Desktop'.
10. Job done, now you have a wallpaper for each desktop. Nifty eh?

You could of course have anything displayed here, even a web page such as iGoogle or the like without having to have your browser open all the time.

Apple has produly announced that it has sold over 300,000 iPads on it's first day of release in the US. The iPad was revealed to the world back in Janurary after months if not years of speculation that Apple would be releasing a tablet like computing device.

The initial success of the iPad comes after an ongoing and hyped up ad campaign by Apple. The 300,000 iPads sold so far include all those that were pre-ordered on the Apple site and through channel partners. It is not clear where the most of the sales came from, but it's a good bet that Apple stores across America have been inundated with consumers wanting to get their hands on Apple's latest offering.

In addition to shifting so many iPads, Apple can also celebrate the sale of content for the device too. Over one million Apps and over 250,000 eBooks were purchased from the App Store and iBookstore respectively, making launch day for the iPad an overwhelming success for Apple.

Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO said "It feels great to have the iPad launched into the world—it’s going to be a game changer, iPad users, on average, downloaded more than three apps and close to one book within hours of unpacking their new iPad."

There is no doubt that the first few days of the iPad being out in the wild have been a good one for Apple. However competition for the iPad could quickly heat up with several promising devices planned for release soon. These include devices that run Google Android and have access to the Android market place.