Forget about exploring your Firefox or Google Chrome cache. When it comes to browser cache, the biggest problem that most users face is figuring out just which folder the elusive but often-important browsing history data resides in. MozillaCacheView and ChromeCacheView from long-time freeware utility publisher NirSoft make it easy to not merely view your cache, but to truly get your hands deep into it, too.

The interface of either will instantly bore you. How uninspired is it? It's so dull I've got to point out that there's a menu bar, because right below it there's a row of nearly-indecipherable buttons. Most of what you'll want is there, and thankfully they all have mouse-over tooltips so you can figure what they do on the fly. A little bit of exploring will help you grok what each one does. In order: you can select the cache folder, open the cached item's link in your browser, copy selected cached files to a new folder, or delete selected files. The next two buttons let you filter the cache and clear the filter, and we were surprised at how well the filter worked.

You can also save items, refresh the list so you don't need to restart the program, copy items to the clipboard, view properties, and perform a search. The search option allows for a more refined process than the filter. Under the View option you can export an HTML report of your cache's contents. MozillaCacheView also gives you hot keys for all its major functions, and includes several preset filters under the Options menu. Annoyingly, the programs come as ZIP archives and not as executables.

They are slightly different: ChromeCacheView doesn't provide as many options, most notably lacking the ability to delete cache items and lacking the filter. The programs are surprisingly powerful despite the lackluster interface, and make for an excellent lightweight way to explore your cache folders.

Opera 10.50 earned another public pre-alpha version, but this one is for Windows users only so far.

Originally announced in December, the significantly faster preview build of what's to come for the browser doesn't introduce any major new features, but it does include several important bug fixes from the last pre-alpha build.

Included in Opera 10.50 pre-alpha 3199 are upgrades to the new core rendering engine, which looks in preliminary testing to bring Opera's rendering speeds at least to parity with Google Chrome. Windows 7 integration and video support have been improved, while support for IMAP compress and context menu support for "inspect element" have been added. Several mail issues and other common crashes have also been addressed.

Mac and Linux versions of the new build haven't been released yet, and the publisher has pointed out two known major bugs: a lower score on the Acid3 rendering test than in Opera 10.10, and a Document Object Model, or DOM, regression. Opera expects both to be fixed by the next release. In the blog post announcing the new build, Opera also put out a public call for more bug reporting.

Remember Linja Zax? Probably not, but the technology, which emerged around this time last year as a gesture-based alternative to multitouch can now be found on Nokia's N900 browser. It can also be found within the specifications of Mozilla's mobile Fennec browser, although it has not yet been implemented.

Linja Zax's latest trick is to re-imagine how users scroll around a page. Where most touch-based browsers simply move the Web page, map tile, or image around as if it were a piece of paper on a table, Linja Zax now gives your screen a 3D tilt.

This ever so slight change in perspective gives users a much farther field of view to see both how much more room there is to go in any one direction, as well as a broader view on a small screen. Linja Design, the makers of Linja Zax promise that it's 50 percent better than viewing the content with the current standard.

Here's what it looks like:

The idea of tilting or pitching content within a display is by no means new. On the desktop it's been available in a number of applications and browser add-ons. But in recent years, it's begun to make a lot more sense on mobile devices where there is less screen real estate to go around. This can be seen most recently within Google's Android 2.1 software, which has a gallery app that uses technology from Cooliris. However, unlike what Linja Designs has shown off, it's based less on finger interaction as much as the way you're holding the phone.

Linja Zax 2.0 remains a concept, whereas version 1.0 can be installed as an add-on to Firefox browsers. As mentioned before, its circular finger zooming gestures can also be found on the embedded browser that ships on the Nokia N900.

Originally posted at Web Crawler

It was just last month that Skyfire pushed out its latest mobile browser build for Windows phones. Now Skyfire is paying Symbian Series 60 phones their due. On Wednesday, the Opera Mobile competitor releases Skyfire 1.5 for Symbian S60 phones (third edition) and a beta for fifth-edition handsets.

It's smooth scrolling from here on out.

Like Skyfire 1.5 on Windows phones, the Symbian version takes some of the jerkiness out of scrolling up and down a page. That's in addition to giving the browser interface a fresh lick of paint, as Skyfire did with that Windows build mentioned above.

The Skyfire beta for Symbian S60 fifth-edition (touch screen) phones offers full screen mode, as did its Windows Mobile counterpart, as well as the capability to rotate into landscape mode when the phone flips to its side.

You'll be able to download Skyfire for Symbian for free by navigating to get.skyfire.com from the mobile Web browser.

The creative and attractive desktop replacement app BumpTop is coming to the Mac. Launched last year on Windows, and a CNET Download Best of 2009 app, BumpTop makes desktop items act more like they're physical. You can fling folders, files, and notes around the desktop, smash them into each other, give them weight, and pin them on the 3D "walls" at the edges of your desktop.

The OS X version is an upgrade from the Windows app. The code's been re-written from the ground up, CEO Anand Agarawala says, and there are some UI tweaks that work really well with a Mac's multitouch trackpad.

I found the app entertaining, if a little claustrophobic on my 13-inch Macbook. On a larger Mac or a touch-screen device, I bet it'd be a lot of fun.

The basic app is free. The paid, Pro version has extra features, like support for all the gestures. The Pro version is a free upgrade to the first 100 people who sign up at this special page: http://bumptop.com/press/cnet.

The BumpTop business

But the interesting story here is the business for BumpTop. While a desktop replacement app like this might make a few bucks in onesie-twosie sales to enthusiasts, the real money is in direct deals with vendors. BumpTop has that on Windows: The new HP TouchSmart tm2 touch-screen convertible comes with BumpTop. Licensing deals like this are key to BumpTop's survival and success.

So why do a Mac version? Agarawala told me he has no deal with Apple. There's no upcoming Apple product that will have the BumpTop bundled with it. If you want the app on your Mac you'll have to find it and download it yourself. Furthermore, Apple has applied for its own patents on a 3D interface that look an awful lot like BumpTop's product. Apple's also a week away from the likely release of its own slate or tablet computer, which will quite possibly feature a user interface that draws from these ideas. Agarawala says his patent applications pre-date Apple's, but a legal battle with Apple over this issue would likely be a dangerous distraction for the small company.

The reason for the Mac version, Agarawala says, is that BumpTop ultimately will become a social platform and an online tool. In future versions, you'll be able to share documents among your computers simply by pinning them to the back wall. You'll also be able to join your desktop to your buddies' setups, and fling files to friends. BumpTop needs to be multiplatform for this strategy to work, hence the Mac version.

But the app is, still, just a replacement for traditional operating systems' desktop, which raises another objection: Who cares about the desktop? We work online, we work in file folders, we work in apps. The desktop, for many users, is just one piece of the workspace. Fortunately, future versions of the BumpTop, Agarawala says, will at least be cloud-friendly. You'll be able to see your online files and resources on your desktop, group them, work with them, and file them as you can currently do with local resources. He says that he's working with cloud storage companies (he wouldn't say which one or ones) to make this happen.

Agarawala agrees that a tool that just replaces the local desktop will have a limited future. He says, "we're making the desktop useful again." With BumpTop, the desktop is certainly fun. But I have to withhold judgment on utility until the sharing and cloud features make it into the product.

Originally posted at Rafe's Radar

Microsoft will take the unusual step of issuing an out-of-cycle patch for the Internet Explorer flaw thought to have been central to the cyberattacks against Google and other companies.

The company announced Tuesday that "given the significant level of attention this issue has generated, confusion about what customers can do to protect themselves, and the escalating threat environment, Microsoft will release a security update out-of-band for this vulnerability." Microsoft didn't say exactly when it would release the patch, but promised more details Wednesday.

Microsoft normally releases patches for its software on Patch Tuesday, as it has come to be known, so that corporations that use Microsoft products will know what's coming and can plan accordingly. But every now and then it will break with that pattern upon the discovery of an important flaw or vulnerability that requires a fast fix, since Patch Tuesday only comes once a month. The next Patch Tuesday is scheduled for February 9.

The vulnerability at issue in the cyberattacks that have prompted a showdown between Google and China affects versions 6, 7, and 8 of Internet Explorer, although Microsoft said that attacks have only been successful on systems running IE 6. The company advised IE users to upgrade to Internet Explorer 8 to protect themselves against attacks.

The news comes after researchers from Vupen Security reported that technology designed to mitigate attacks in newer versions of IE can be bypassed.

Asked to comment on that, a Microsoft spokeswoman said: "Microsoft is investigating claims of the ability to bypass the Data Execution Prevention (DEP) feature in Internet Explorer. Once we're done investigating, we will take appropriate action to help protect customers."

Updated at 1:32 p.m. PST with report of ability to bypass Microsoft DEP technology and Microsoft comment.

Originally posted at Relevant Results