1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:02,960 Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 2 00:00:03,160 --> 00:00:08,880 Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 3 00:00:09,039 --> 00:00:17,920 Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 4 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:20,480 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Pellette and 5 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:23,360 Speaker 1: I am an editor at house stuff works dot com. 6 00:00:23,400 --> 00:00:27,400 Speaker 1: Sitting across from me, it's always his senior writer, Jonathan Strickland. 7 00:00:27,680 --> 00:00:31,000 Speaker 1: Whatever happened to Saturday night when you dressed up sharp 8 00:00:31,240 --> 00:00:35,639 Speaker 1: and you felt all right, I'm not going to answer that. 9 00:00:35,920 --> 00:00:39,959 Speaker 1: Let's go and talk a little bit about a browser 10 00:00:40,159 --> 00:00:43,040 Speaker 1: that's made the news recently. And by recently I mean 11 00:00:43,320 --> 00:00:48,120 Speaker 1: in early November of two. Thank you. We do have 12 00:00:48,200 --> 00:00:50,320 Speaker 1: lots of people who catch up, That's true. They go 13 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:54,560 Speaker 1: through the entire archive, so somebody awesome. And then that 14 00:00:54,600 --> 00:00:56,360 Speaker 1: means that every time we get that wave, we get 15 00:00:56,400 --> 00:00:58,360 Speaker 1: the people writing in and saying, hey, whatever happened to 16 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:01,720 Speaker 1: the old listener mail intro? We wanted to talk a 17 00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:05,840 Speaker 1: little bit about rock melt. Yes, now I wrote about 18 00:01:05,920 --> 00:01:09,120 Speaker 1: rock Melts and the blog. You do read our blog, 19 00:01:09,160 --> 00:01:13,120 Speaker 1: don't you? Um? Some time ago? At that point, it 20 00:01:13,120 --> 00:01:15,840 Speaker 1: was a few months ago now, and it was one 21 00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:18,120 Speaker 1: of those things that people were sort of starting to 22 00:01:18,200 --> 00:01:22,440 Speaker 1: talk about the possibility of a new browser coming on 23 00:01:22,480 --> 00:01:27,280 Speaker 1: the scene to compete with the already entrenched Internet Explorer, Safari, 24 00:01:28,080 --> 00:01:32,640 Speaker 1: Chrome and Firefox. Now. Part of the reason that people 25 00:01:32,640 --> 00:01:36,520 Speaker 1: were talking about this was the involvement of a certain 26 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:42,600 Speaker 1: gentleman who um is certainly no newcomer to the browser 27 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:47,840 Speaker 1: wars and that would be Mark and Yes. Yes uh so. Mr. 28 00:01:47,880 --> 00:01:51,960 Speaker 1: Andreeson was one of the people who developed Netscape, the 29 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:56,720 Speaker 1: Netscape Internet Browser, yes, and before it, the Mosaic Web browser, 30 00:01:56,800 --> 00:02:01,080 Speaker 1: which many of our listeners may not even be familiar with. 31 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:05,960 Speaker 1: It was a project um that started within basically as 32 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:10,639 Speaker 1: a school project, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, um 33 00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:16,080 Speaker 1: and it was pretty much the first viable web browser. Um. 34 00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:18,480 Speaker 1: I say pretty much because I forgot to go look 35 00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:20,880 Speaker 1: and find that out. But I'm almost certain that it 36 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:23,400 Speaker 1: is the first viable browser. And it did turn in 37 00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:28,960 Speaker 1: it did involve the evolve into the the Netscape commercial 38 00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:34,120 Speaker 1: web browser. Um and uh. Of course Mr Andreason dropped 39 00:02:34,639 --> 00:02:37,120 Speaker 1: out of the spotlight for that particular thing, went on 40 00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:40,480 Speaker 1: to become a tech entrepreneur, moved on to other projects, 41 00:02:40,520 --> 00:02:43,680 Speaker 1: and now he is one of the investors in Rock Melt. Yeah. 42 00:02:43,720 --> 00:02:47,240 Speaker 1: The story was broken back in August of two thousand 43 00:02:47,360 --> 00:02:51,800 Speaker 1: nine my Miguel Health over UM and and at the 44 00:02:51,800 --> 00:02:56,400 Speaker 1: New York Times, and he mentioned that uh, that Andreason 45 00:02:56,520 --> 00:03:00,240 Speaker 1: had decided to put some money, invest some money into 46 00:03:00,360 --> 00:03:04,040 Speaker 1: this this startup venture, and the product was going to 47 00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:06,320 Speaker 1: be called rock Melt. Now at the time, back in 48 00:03:06,320 --> 00:03:10,600 Speaker 1: two thousand nine, there were very very few details about 49 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:15,000 Speaker 1: the browser that that we were privy to. But even 50 00:03:15,040 --> 00:03:17,800 Speaker 1: then we knew that it was going to be a 51 00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:19,639 Speaker 1: web browser and that it was going to have some 52 00:03:19,760 --> 00:03:23,560 Speaker 1: form of integration with Facebook. Yes, that that it was 53 00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:27,200 Speaker 1: going to require that you sign in through a Facebook 54 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:31,040 Speaker 1: I D in order to use the browser UM, which 55 00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:33,640 Speaker 1: is interesting that we we actually knew that much detail 56 00:03:33,720 --> 00:03:36,600 Speaker 1: back then. It was also interesting that it was apparently 57 00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:39,520 Speaker 1: news to Facebook, or at least that's that's you know. 58 00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:43,440 Speaker 1: The executives that that helped tried to contact said that 59 00:03:43,480 --> 00:03:48,040 Speaker 1: they had no involvement with rock Melt whatsoever. Well, I 60 00:03:48,040 --> 00:03:50,640 Speaker 1: think one of the things to point out about that 61 00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:53,960 Speaker 1: UM is that may not be such a big surprise 62 00:03:54,040 --> 00:03:59,480 Speaker 1: considering the availability of the application programming interface yes a 63 00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:04,680 Speaker 1: p I UH from Facebook. Basically, you can bake a 64 00:04:04,760 --> 00:04:09,440 Speaker 1: lot of Facebook connectivity into your project. Of there are 65 00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:11,960 Speaker 1: different kinds of project web projects, and in this case 66 00:04:11,960 --> 00:04:16,000 Speaker 1: of software project um without because Facebook has already made 67 00:04:16,040 --> 00:04:19,800 Speaker 1: that available, so they don't necessarily have to have that upfront. 68 00:04:19,880 --> 00:04:23,280 Speaker 1: They can already be working on that without uh, you know, 69 00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:26,400 Speaker 1: giving Facebook the heads up. So you might wonder, well, 70 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:30,799 Speaker 1: what would possess Mr andrees and to invest a significant 71 00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:34,039 Speaker 1: amount of money into a new browser? After all, as 72 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:37,479 Speaker 1: Chris was pointing out, the browser market has no shortage 73 00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:40,560 Speaker 1: of contenders. Yes, I mean you still have Internet Explorer, 74 00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:43,720 Speaker 1: which is still the dominant browser on the market, although 75 00:04:43,880 --> 00:04:48,200 Speaker 1: its share is declining. It's no, it's no longer um, 76 00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:51,719 Speaker 1: it's no longer I would say that it's no longer 77 00:04:52,080 --> 00:04:56,040 Speaker 1: assured its place as number one. There there's a chance 78 00:04:56,080 --> 00:04:58,479 Speaker 1: that other browsers could take that over for a while. 79 00:04:58,560 --> 00:05:00,320 Speaker 1: Look like it was gonna be Firefox to do that 80 00:05:00,360 --> 00:05:03,080 Speaker 1: because it was making steady gains, and then Google Chrome 81 00:05:03,160 --> 00:05:07,280 Speaker 1: hit the the market and that has managed to do 82 00:05:07,400 --> 00:05:11,360 Speaker 1: quite well as as well. So you might think, well, 83 00:05:11,640 --> 00:05:17,040 Speaker 1: what would possess anyone two support a browser when we 84 00:05:17,080 --> 00:05:19,320 Speaker 1: already have so many on the market. Not necessarily that 85 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:22,440 Speaker 1: the browser, the new browser wouldn't be better. It might 86 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:25,640 Speaker 1: be better, but sometimes it doesn't matter. You come out 87 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:29,120 Speaker 1: with a superior product, but the other product is so 88 00:05:29,440 --> 00:05:33,480 Speaker 1: entrenched in the market that it doesn't matter. You could argue, 89 00:05:33,520 --> 00:05:36,320 Speaker 1: and people have argued that this is the case with 90 00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:39,480 Speaker 1: MP three players. There are people who say, I'm not 91 00:05:39,520 --> 00:05:41,719 Speaker 1: necessarily one of them, but there are people who say 92 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:46,280 Speaker 1: that the Apple line of iPod products our inferior in 93 00:05:46,320 --> 00:05:51,760 Speaker 1: some ways to similar products. Correct And using that argument, 94 00:05:51,760 --> 00:05:53,719 Speaker 1: you might say, well, wait a minute, this, this other 95 00:05:53,920 --> 00:05:58,719 Speaker 1: MP three player has more features and has a greater capacity, 96 00:05:58,839 --> 00:06:01,960 Speaker 1: lower price point, what or whatever features it might have 97 00:06:02,120 --> 00:06:04,960 Speaker 1: that are different from the iPod, why is it more popular? 98 00:06:05,240 --> 00:06:08,039 Speaker 1: And really the iPod has just become entrenched in the 99 00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:11,240 Speaker 1: MP three market. Um, same sort of thing with the 100 00:06:11,240 --> 00:06:14,119 Speaker 1: web browsers. So what could make Mr andrees and think 101 00:06:14,640 --> 00:06:19,000 Speaker 1: that the rock melt was a worthy endeavor? And really, 102 00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:21,240 Speaker 1: I think the answer comes down to the fact that 103 00:06:21,279 --> 00:06:24,679 Speaker 1: people are using the web differently than they were fifteen 104 00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:27,920 Speaker 1: years ago. That's true. You know, back then it was 105 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:30,320 Speaker 1: all about you go to a web page, you read 106 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:32,680 Speaker 1: the content, and you may not ever go back to 107 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:35,000 Speaker 1: that web page ever again because the content would pretty 108 00:06:35,080 --> 00:06:38,880 Speaker 1: much stay the same, right, right, and you might do 109 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:41,039 Speaker 1: a little bit of internet shopping, but there wasn't a 110 00:06:41,080 --> 00:06:42,960 Speaker 1: lot in the early days. I mean, it wasn't until 111 00:06:42,960 --> 00:06:45,240 Speaker 1: the late nineties that started to take off. And then 112 00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:47,880 Speaker 1: of course you had the Internet bubble and uh and 113 00:06:47,960 --> 00:06:50,120 Speaker 1: after the bubble burst and a lot of companies, well 114 00:06:50,279 --> 00:06:54,200 Speaker 1: business that that really took a huge that made a 115 00:06:54,279 --> 00:06:57,560 Speaker 1: huge dent in in online shopping for quite some time. 116 00:06:58,640 --> 00:07:02,640 Speaker 1: So really, the element I think that has changed the 117 00:07:02,640 --> 00:07:06,520 Speaker 1: web the most in the last few years is social networking, 118 00:07:07,080 --> 00:07:10,320 Speaker 1: right at least that's that's one of the easy things 119 00:07:10,320 --> 00:07:14,000 Speaker 1: to point to when people talk about web two point oh. 120 00:07:14,280 --> 00:07:16,720 Speaker 1: In most cases, what they're talking about is some sort 121 00:07:16,840 --> 00:07:22,200 Speaker 1: of social media technology that is embedded in a web page, 122 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:25,760 Speaker 1: like for example, blogs were what I think a lot 123 00:07:25,800 --> 00:07:28,160 Speaker 1: of people consider sort of an early web two point 124 00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:30,840 Speaker 1: oh technology. So you write your blog post and you 125 00:07:30,880 --> 00:07:34,160 Speaker 1: give you leave the comments open so that other people 126 00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:38,160 Speaker 1: can comment on your site, and it starts a dialogue 127 00:07:38,200 --> 00:07:43,120 Speaker 1: between the reader and the author and between the readers 128 00:07:43,120 --> 00:07:46,800 Speaker 1: themselves too, and then from there we've gone through other 129 00:07:46,840 --> 00:07:50,920 Speaker 1: types of uh web two point oh technologies, but that 130 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:53,440 Speaker 1: was that's sort of one of those things comments on 131 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:57,720 Speaker 1: shopping sites, for instance, and of course the social media 132 00:07:57,800 --> 00:08:03,040 Speaker 1: sites including my Space, friend stir, Facebook, Twitter, and all 133 00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:07,440 Speaker 1: the myriad other sites including you know, things like flicker 134 00:08:07,680 --> 00:08:11,720 Speaker 1: and YouTube, where the primary purpose is not necessarily to 135 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:15,960 Speaker 1: have social networking, but that it's a huge, huge aspect 136 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:19,360 Speaker 1: of that. And I think, uh, you're right. I think 137 00:08:19,400 --> 00:08:22,800 Speaker 1: that is supposed to be the This is the hey, 138 00:08:22,840 --> 00:08:25,080 Speaker 1: we haven't used your favorite word in awhile, convergence of 139 00:08:25,680 --> 00:08:30,520 Speaker 1: social media technology and the browser, so that the social 140 00:08:30,560 --> 00:08:33,679 Speaker 1: media part is always on, no matter what site you're visiting. Yeah, 141 00:08:33,760 --> 00:08:36,360 Speaker 1: And that's that's the basic idea of rock Melt, and 142 00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:40,760 Speaker 1: that that explains why there's this close relationship with Facebook 143 00:08:40,800 --> 00:08:42,880 Speaker 1: where you have to sign in to Facebook in order 144 00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:45,439 Speaker 1: to use the rock Melt browser the way it's intended 145 00:08:45,480 --> 00:08:48,480 Speaker 1: to be used. Um. Now, Chris and I both have 146 00:08:48,559 --> 00:08:51,440 Speaker 1: access to the rock Melt browser as we record this. 147 00:08:51,520 --> 00:08:54,839 Speaker 1: It's currently in beta test mode and it's invitation only. 148 00:08:55,480 --> 00:08:58,800 Speaker 1: Um And and that's just a for for right now. 149 00:08:59,040 --> 00:09:01,600 Speaker 1: That that's actually sort of a new development too. It 150 00:09:01,640 --> 00:09:07,439 Speaker 1: wasn't even open to beta testing, uh participation until probably 151 00:09:07,440 --> 00:09:11,160 Speaker 1: just a few days before recording this. We had a 152 00:09:11,160 --> 00:09:13,800 Speaker 1: few days to play with it, but it's enough time 153 00:09:13,840 --> 00:09:17,480 Speaker 1: to really kind of get a first impression. Now, the 154 00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:20,520 Speaker 1: way the browsers laid out is kind of interesting as 155 00:09:20,520 --> 00:09:23,520 Speaker 1: opposed to you know, most browsers have the main window 156 00:09:23,720 --> 00:09:26,520 Speaker 1: is all the web page, and then you'll have a 157 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:28,720 Speaker 1: maybe a bar at the top and possibly one at 158 00:09:28,720 --> 00:09:33,280 Speaker 1: the bottom that would allow you to do some navigational features. Right, 159 00:09:33,320 --> 00:09:38,480 Speaker 1: you have your your web page controls, the browser controls themselves, um, 160 00:09:38,520 --> 00:09:40,360 Speaker 1: and then an information bar at the bottom where you 161 00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:43,480 Speaker 1: see your address and if you have plug ins, which 162 00:09:43,559 --> 00:09:46,760 Speaker 1: is you know, very very popular for Firefox and Chrome 163 00:09:46,880 --> 00:09:51,320 Speaker 1: especially as well as other browsers too, but primarily, but 164 00:09:51,400 --> 00:09:55,600 Speaker 1: primarily those they're they've made themselves very open to that. Uh. 165 00:09:55,880 --> 00:09:57,920 Speaker 1: You know, you'll have those you might see those on 166 00:09:58,120 --> 00:10:04,360 Speaker 1: an additional panel or or toolbar, um. But yeah, for 167 00:10:04,400 --> 00:10:07,680 Speaker 1: the most part, that's you know, it's all part of that. Yeah, 168 00:10:07,760 --> 00:10:10,600 Speaker 1: the rock melts a little different. Uh. Now when you're 169 00:10:10,600 --> 00:10:14,000 Speaker 1: looking at the main body of the browser, when you're 170 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:18,440 Speaker 1: looking at the actual content. Uh, it's going to look 171 00:10:18,520 --> 00:10:21,880 Speaker 1: very familiar to anyone who's used Chrome because rock Melt 172 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:25,600 Speaker 1: is built on Chromium, which is the open source code 173 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:28,839 Speaker 1: that Chrome itself is based upon so you can think 174 00:10:28,880 --> 00:10:32,480 Speaker 1: of rock Melt and Chrome is sort of cousins. You know, 175 00:10:32,520 --> 00:10:34,760 Speaker 1: they're not directly related. It's not that rock Melt is 176 00:10:34,760 --> 00:10:37,560 Speaker 1: a Chrome built it's just using the same base code 177 00:10:37,640 --> 00:10:41,120 Speaker 1: that Chrome uses. Right as of right now. Um, according 178 00:10:41,160 --> 00:10:45,559 Speaker 1: to Seth Rosenblad c net uh, rock Melt, the current 179 00:10:45,600 --> 00:10:48,760 Speaker 1: data zero point eight point three four point eight three 180 00:10:48,880 --> 00:10:52,800 Speaker 1: three is built on Chromium six. There you go. Um, 181 00:10:52,840 --> 00:10:55,640 Speaker 1: you can take that to the bank folks. Of course, 182 00:10:55,679 --> 00:10:57,400 Speaker 1: probably by the time well, I mean it's in beta, 183 00:10:57,480 --> 00:10:59,440 Speaker 1: so by the time this goes live, that will probably 184 00:10:59,480 --> 00:11:02,520 Speaker 1: be updated from that point. Um, actually it may have been. 185 00:11:02,559 --> 00:11:05,280 Speaker 1: That's a few days ago from now, so that aren't mean. 186 00:11:05,320 --> 00:11:09,400 Speaker 1: Beta's tend to move pretty quickly, and sometimes sometimes they're 187 00:11:09,480 --> 00:11:12,760 Speaker 1: very tiny changes that are not perceptible to users. It's 188 00:11:12,760 --> 00:11:14,680 Speaker 1: all on the back end and it you know, we 189 00:11:14,760 --> 00:11:18,320 Speaker 1: don't ever really notice it. Uh. Well, anyway, that's that's 190 00:11:18,360 --> 00:11:22,200 Speaker 1: the main portion of your your browser. But unlike other 191 00:11:22,480 --> 00:11:26,679 Speaker 1: or unlike most browsers, rock Belt also has edges or 192 00:11:26,960 --> 00:11:30,800 Speaker 1: little panels along the side that allow you to access 193 00:11:31,400 --> 00:11:35,200 Speaker 1: um uh extra content. Uh. And by extra content, I 194 00:11:35,200 --> 00:11:38,520 Speaker 1: mean things that you have specifically designated as being interesting 195 00:11:38,559 --> 00:11:40,960 Speaker 1: to you. So you have your Facebook friends on your 196 00:11:41,040 --> 00:11:43,000 Speaker 1: left side, all the ones who are currently online, which 197 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:46,560 Speaker 1: allows you to chat with them using Facebook Chat. As 198 00:11:46,559 --> 00:11:48,640 Speaker 1: a matter of fact, it will show you you get 199 00:11:48,640 --> 00:11:52,280 Speaker 1: the familiar, well semi familiar if you're used chat programs 200 00:11:52,280 --> 00:11:56,040 Speaker 1: that will probably be uh comfortable for you. You'll see 201 00:11:56,080 --> 00:11:59,160 Speaker 1: a dot next to their name. Um, I thought I 202 00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:05,280 Speaker 1: had that turned. Mr Plett needs to mute his iPad. Okay, 203 00:12:05,920 --> 00:12:09,040 Speaker 1: So if you if you look at the left side, 204 00:12:09,040 --> 00:12:11,800 Speaker 1: you'll see your your Facebook users, and you'll you'll see 205 00:12:11,840 --> 00:12:14,599 Speaker 1: their photos, you know, the thumbnail photos, and there'll be 206 00:12:14,640 --> 00:12:17,080 Speaker 1: a green dot if they're online and a clear dot 207 00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:20,600 Speaker 1: if they are not. At least that's the way I remember. 208 00:12:20,600 --> 00:12:23,000 Speaker 1: I believe, I believe you are correct, and so you can. 209 00:12:23,040 --> 00:12:26,400 Speaker 1: You can initiate a Facebook chat directly from your browser. 210 00:12:26,440 --> 00:12:28,600 Speaker 1: You don't have to be on your Facebook page in 211 00:12:28,679 --> 00:12:31,040 Speaker 1: order to do it. And then on the right side 212 00:12:31,400 --> 00:12:35,840 Speaker 1: are some icons that will include things like Facebook status 213 00:12:35,920 --> 00:12:40,160 Speaker 1: is as well as direct um interactions on your Facebook page. 214 00:12:40,160 --> 00:12:42,880 Speaker 1: So let's say that you posted a status update, You'll 215 00:12:42,920 --> 00:12:46,800 Speaker 1: have one icon that will alert you if people uh 216 00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:49,520 Speaker 1: respond to that stas update or if or like it 217 00:12:49,720 --> 00:12:53,000 Speaker 1: or whatever, or if they post your wallpost directly, that'll 218 00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:55,760 Speaker 1: come up under one icon. Under a second icon, you'll 219 00:12:55,800 --> 00:12:59,440 Speaker 1: be notified whenever your friends are updating their Facebook pages, 220 00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:02,720 Speaker 1: so you have two icons for Facebook. Then you you 221 00:13:02,760 --> 00:13:05,120 Speaker 1: can also link to your Twitter account if you have one, 222 00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:08,000 Speaker 1: so you can get Twitter updates that way, and the 223 00:13:08,040 --> 00:13:10,840 Speaker 1: browser itself will even give you live updates. A little 224 00:13:10,880 --> 00:13:13,920 Speaker 1: window will pop up with the the update, whether it's 225 00:13:13,920 --> 00:13:17,640 Speaker 1: a Stats update or a Twitter update, um, those those 226 00:13:17,640 --> 00:13:20,800 Speaker 1: will come in in real time. You can also subscribe 227 00:13:20,800 --> 00:13:23,080 Speaker 1: to RSS feeds this way, and you will have a 228 00:13:23,080 --> 00:13:25,920 Speaker 1: little icon that will tell you whenever the web page 229 00:13:25,960 --> 00:13:28,200 Speaker 1: that you've subscribed to has been updated, and you just 230 00:13:28,240 --> 00:13:30,320 Speaker 1: click on that little icon, it'll pull up the most 231 00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:33,720 Speaker 1: recent content. So the the idea here is you can 232 00:13:33,920 --> 00:13:37,920 Speaker 1: browse one web page and be alert to all the 233 00:13:38,040 --> 00:13:41,120 Speaker 1: updates on the other web pages you're interested in, and 234 00:13:41,160 --> 00:13:43,000 Speaker 1: you can keep up to date with them without having 235 00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:46,240 Speaker 1: to keep popping around to you know, different, you don't 236 00:13:46,280 --> 00:13:48,120 Speaker 1: you don't have to physically go to each web page 237 00:13:48,160 --> 00:13:51,480 Speaker 1: to check because you have the little alert system there. 238 00:13:51,880 --> 00:13:54,520 Speaker 1: And I'm kind of curious to see how that's gonna 239 00:13:54,559 --> 00:13:58,160 Speaker 1: play out because in general, websites don't like it when 240 00:13:58,240 --> 00:14:00,959 Speaker 1: you can find out what information has been updated without 241 00:14:00,960 --> 00:14:05,080 Speaker 1: actually visiting them, because that can come into some problems 242 00:14:05,120 --> 00:14:09,240 Speaker 1: with advertising deals and impressions. So it'll be interesting to 243 00:14:09,240 --> 00:14:14,640 Speaker 1: see if that has any if there's any resistance from 244 00:14:15,040 --> 00:14:20,040 Speaker 1: website administrators to this new browser. Resistance is futile. Yes, 245 00:14:20,360 --> 00:14:22,880 Speaker 1: I heard that somewhere. I heard it as well just 246 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:28,680 Speaker 1: now in fact, well, um so, reactions from the tech 247 00:14:29,520 --> 00:14:33,560 Speaker 1: press have been sort of mixed. Yeah, there's there's some 248 00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:37,000 Speaker 1: people I think who really really dig it. They but 249 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:40,240 Speaker 1: they're using it in a very specific way. They're using 250 00:14:40,240 --> 00:14:44,720 Speaker 1: it specifically to keep track of all the social networking 251 00:14:44,720 --> 00:14:49,400 Speaker 1: stuff they do. They are not technically using it as 252 00:14:49,400 --> 00:14:52,320 Speaker 1: a browser, or at least not not relying it upon 253 00:14:52,360 --> 00:14:56,040 Speaker 1: it as their new browser. Almost every review I've read 254 00:14:56,040 --> 00:15:01,400 Speaker 1: that was positive called it a great a great Facebook browser, 255 00:15:01,560 --> 00:15:05,520 Speaker 1: not necessarily a great web browser. Um and that's kind 256 00:15:05,520 --> 00:15:09,240 Speaker 1: of how I use it. I no, I was just 257 00:15:09,280 --> 00:15:13,200 Speaker 1: gonna say that. It's sort of funny to say that 258 00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:18,280 Speaker 1: because it's primary purpose is as a web browser. So 259 00:15:18,440 --> 00:15:23,000 Speaker 1: I think basically the difference being the social media aspect. 260 00:15:23,040 --> 00:15:26,480 Speaker 1: I think That's why it comes off that way, is that, um, 261 00:15:26,520 --> 00:15:29,160 Speaker 1: you know, people are supposed to be thinking of it 262 00:15:29,200 --> 00:15:31,560 Speaker 1: in those terms, and of course you know, we're being 263 00:15:31,600 --> 00:15:34,440 Speaker 1: asked to think of it, you know, especially that the 264 00:15:34,520 --> 00:15:37,600 Speaker 1: journalists are thinking of, well, what's different about this? The 265 00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:41,280 Speaker 1: the chromium functionality seems to be pretty much the same 266 00:15:41,360 --> 00:15:44,360 Speaker 1: for me, uh, you know, in my experience as it 267 00:15:44,400 --> 00:15:46,320 Speaker 1: has been. But it does give you a little bit 268 00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:48,960 Speaker 1: more oomph when you're looking at things like, well, do 269 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:51,800 Speaker 1: you want to like this thing that you're looking at? 270 00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:55,480 Speaker 1: You know, sort of. It just makes it more simple 271 00:15:55,560 --> 00:15:58,240 Speaker 1: to do that without having to look for, you know, 272 00:15:58,280 --> 00:16:01,000 Speaker 1: the like button. Yeah, you can. You can share web 273 00:16:01,040 --> 00:16:04,360 Speaker 1: pages directly to your Facebook page. Let's say that you're 274 00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:07,600 Speaker 1: visiting a site and you're reading, let's say, um, uh, 275 00:16:07,720 --> 00:16:10,120 Speaker 1: let me get a good website, um, how stuffworks dot com. 276 00:16:10,280 --> 00:16:12,880 Speaker 1: Let's say you are visiting how stuff works dot com 277 00:16:12,920 --> 00:16:17,160 Speaker 1: and you're reading a really cool article like how Asimo 278 00:16:17,240 --> 00:16:19,960 Speaker 1: works by Jonathan Strickland. So you're reading how Asthma works 279 00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:22,280 Speaker 1: by Jonathan Strickland on how stuff Works dot com and 280 00:16:22,320 --> 00:16:24,680 Speaker 1: you're thinking, this is a really neat article. I would 281 00:16:24,720 --> 00:16:27,720 Speaker 1: like to share this with my friends and within rock Melt, 282 00:16:27,800 --> 00:16:29,800 Speaker 1: you can do that just by clicking a little share button. 283 00:16:29,800 --> 00:16:33,160 Speaker 1: It's part of the browser itself. You don't have to 284 00:16:33,680 --> 00:16:37,120 Speaker 1: look for a share button on the article. You don't 285 00:16:37,160 --> 00:16:39,280 Speaker 1: have to copy the u r L and go to 286 00:16:39,320 --> 00:16:42,800 Speaker 1: your Facebook stas page and paste it manually. That way, 287 00:16:43,200 --> 00:16:45,880 Speaker 1: it's built into the browser directly, which is kind of 288 00:16:45,920 --> 00:16:47,720 Speaker 1: a neat feature. You can also do that with things 289 00:16:47,720 --> 00:16:49,840 Speaker 1: like you can you can tweet things directly that way 290 00:16:49,880 --> 00:16:52,320 Speaker 1: as well. And it has its own built in u 291 00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:56,000 Speaker 1: r L shortener. I believe, although I haven't really played 292 00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:57,560 Speaker 1: with that, I heard that there were some problems with 293 00:16:57,600 --> 00:16:59,200 Speaker 1: the u r L shorten or at least other people 294 00:16:59,240 --> 00:17:02,160 Speaker 1: were experiencing ms. They were testing the links that we're 295 00:17:02,160 --> 00:17:05,560 Speaker 1: being shortened, and we're having trouble getting to them, especially 296 00:17:05,640 --> 00:17:08,720 Speaker 1: from browsers that were not rock melt. Um. I have 297 00:17:08,840 --> 00:17:12,600 Speaker 1: not personally tested that, so I only I've only that's 298 00:17:12,760 --> 00:17:15,439 Speaker 1: secondhand knowledge to me. Yeah, and it's beta too, so 299 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:19,359 Speaker 1: you should expect there if you if you're trying this 300 00:17:19,400 --> 00:17:23,359 Speaker 1: out for yourself, if you also haven't an invitation to 301 00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:25,280 Speaker 1: use rock melt and you've found it to be buggy, 302 00:17:25,359 --> 00:17:27,720 Speaker 1: I mean, that's really to be expected, but we haven't 303 00:17:27,720 --> 00:17:31,160 Speaker 1: even reached a release candidate yet, so so what we're 304 00:17:31,240 --> 00:17:35,640 Speaker 1: using is the earliest usable build from outside of its 305 00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:41,600 Speaker 1: own internal testing area. Uh. It's one other thing I 306 00:17:41,600 --> 00:17:45,200 Speaker 1: thought I would mention before we talk more about about 307 00:17:45,320 --> 00:17:50,240 Speaker 1: the the our impressions of this UM and I'm sure 308 00:17:50,240 --> 00:17:53,439 Speaker 1: there's an easy way to get around it. Those edges 309 00:17:53,480 --> 00:17:55,520 Speaker 1: that we talked about, the left and right edges, Right, 310 00:17:56,400 --> 00:17:58,080 Speaker 1: they tend to cut off the edge of the web 311 00:17:58,080 --> 00:18:01,080 Speaker 1: page you're looking at. Yeah, bugs me too. It means 312 00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:04,399 Speaker 1: that you have to you have to scroll horizontally as 313 00:18:04,400 --> 00:18:08,639 Speaker 1: well as vertically. Well, it depends too. I feel compelled 314 00:18:08,680 --> 00:18:11,439 Speaker 1: to point out that the world seems to be moving 315 00:18:11,600 --> 00:18:16,560 Speaker 1: toward the UM the wide screen aspect ratio, so I 316 00:18:16,560 --> 00:18:19,080 Speaker 1: think that's going to matter less in the future than 317 00:18:19,119 --> 00:18:21,440 Speaker 1: it does for those of us who are you still 318 00:18:21,560 --> 00:18:23,520 Speaker 1: using some sort of screen with a four to three 319 00:18:23,520 --> 00:18:25,760 Speaker 1: aspect ratio. Right, that's a good point. Yeah, if I 320 00:18:25,800 --> 00:18:30,399 Speaker 1: were using a newer computer, then perhaps I wouldn't have 321 00:18:30,480 --> 00:18:34,280 Speaker 1: this issue. I'm not going to say anymore about that 322 00:18:34,359 --> 00:18:38,959 Speaker 1: particular situation. I mean, it's okay that my screen is 323 00:18:39,119 --> 00:18:42,080 Speaker 1: primitive and that half my keys don't work and I 324 00:18:42,840 --> 00:18:45,120 Speaker 1: have to avoid words with the letter E in them. 325 00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:49,720 Speaker 1: That's fine, that's fine, I'm I'm all right with them. 326 00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:52,240 Speaker 1: My prediction, my my prediction that you're going to get 327 00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:53,880 Speaker 1: a new computer by the end of the year. I'm 328 00:18:53,920 --> 00:18:56,879 Speaker 1: running out of time. That happened. Yeah, that's that's looks 329 00:18:56,880 --> 00:18:59,639 Speaker 1: like that's going to lend in that ex category. Um 330 00:18:59,800 --> 00:19:02,520 Speaker 1: and used to that if you listen to our recap 331 00:19:02,560 --> 00:19:06,320 Speaker 1: show from the beginning of this year. So, um, there's 332 00:19:06,359 --> 00:19:09,880 Speaker 1: one thing that I found interesting that's not directly about 333 00:19:09,960 --> 00:19:14,760 Speaker 1: rock melt. Um. I am somebody who likes to try 334 00:19:14,800 --> 00:19:18,600 Speaker 1: out all kinds of new, uh techie things, which probably 335 00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:21,800 Speaker 1: surprises very few of our listeners. Um, you know, just 336 00:19:21,800 --> 00:19:25,359 Speaker 1: to to give him a shot. And the browser wars, 337 00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:30,240 Speaker 1: especially since they've become free. Um are I think a 338 00:19:30,280 --> 00:19:33,760 Speaker 1: really neat opportunity to really compare one piece of software 339 00:19:33,760 --> 00:19:36,360 Speaker 1: to another. So it's every time a new browser comes out, 340 00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:38,320 Speaker 1: I'd like to give it a shot if it's free, 341 00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:42,600 Speaker 1: And I tried one some years ago that actually has 342 00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:45,680 Speaker 1: a lot of this functionality built in already. UM. I'm 343 00:19:45,720 --> 00:19:47,720 Speaker 1: sure you, Jonathan have heard about it, but some of 344 00:19:47,720 --> 00:19:53,080 Speaker 1: our listeners may not have. Yes, I'm gonna guess it's Flock. Yes, indeed, Flock, 345 00:19:53,200 --> 00:19:56,480 Speaker 1: which actually has been up for Webby Awards and a 346 00:19:56,560 --> 00:19:59,399 Speaker 1: number of other awards because it's got a lot of 347 00:19:59,400 --> 00:20:04,119 Speaker 1: the features already built in. It's got social networking capabilities 348 00:20:04,160 --> 00:20:10,040 Speaker 1: for uh, Facebook, Twitter, UM, in addition to others including Flicker, 349 00:20:10,680 --> 00:20:15,080 Speaker 1: UH and YouTube and UM. It actually migrated not too 350 00:20:15,119 --> 00:20:19,040 Speaker 1: long ago, just a few months ago, from a flock migrated. Yes, 351 00:20:19,119 --> 00:20:26,600 Speaker 1: the flock migrated from Nice from the Mozilla platform to Chromium. 352 00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:29,600 Speaker 1: In fact, it is using the same build of Chromium 353 00:20:29,720 --> 00:20:34,520 Speaker 1: six that that UM, the current version of rock melt 354 00:20:34,560 --> 00:20:37,280 Speaker 1: is using. And this again, as according to Mr Rosenblatt 355 00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:41,480 Speaker 1: Um and UH. The thing that I've seen I've seen 356 00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:45,400 Speaker 1: a lot of the other tech writers say is that, well, 357 00:20:45,560 --> 00:20:48,760 Speaker 1: flock has quite a few users, but really it's not 358 00:20:48,840 --> 00:20:52,200 Speaker 1: even making much of a dent in the market. So 359 00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:55,840 Speaker 1: why does rock melt feel like it's browser is going 360 00:20:55,920 --> 00:21:00,400 Speaker 1: to beat that, you know, limited success of Flock. I've 361 00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:03,400 Speaker 1: tried flock and I like it a lot, I would 362 00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:07,720 Speaker 1: say that, Andreason's involvement is probably part of it, because 363 00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:10,120 Speaker 1: I mean, here you have someone who was behind one 364 00:21:10,119 --> 00:21:14,120 Speaker 1: of the most successful actually the story of of Netscape 365 00:21:14,200 --> 00:21:16,199 Speaker 1: Navigator would be an interesting one to cover at some 366 00:21:16,280 --> 00:21:19,160 Speaker 1: point in tech stuff because you talk, you talk about 367 00:21:19,160 --> 00:21:23,680 Speaker 1: a web browser that seemed to be the dominant browser 368 00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:26,560 Speaker 1: and it wasn't ever going to change, and and then 369 00:21:26,600 --> 00:21:32,119 Speaker 1: it changed rather dramatically and relatively quickly. Um, the fall 370 00:21:32,160 --> 00:21:36,400 Speaker 1: of Navigator was pretty impressive. Actually. Uh So, I think 371 00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:39,480 Speaker 1: Andreson's involvement probably has something to do with it. And 372 00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:43,280 Speaker 1: and I get the feeling that the Rock Melt folks 373 00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:48,000 Speaker 1: are really media savvy. They're very very good at getting 374 00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:50,720 Speaker 1: their message out there, and so a lot of tech 375 00:21:50,760 --> 00:21:55,480 Speaker 1: companies kind of lack that that ability to interact with 376 00:21:55,520 --> 00:21:57,960 Speaker 1: the media in a compelling way. It's because you know, 377 00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:01,560 Speaker 1: there's a lot of them are are very technically savvy, 378 00:22:01,560 --> 00:22:04,159 Speaker 1: and they're very good at putting together the product, but 379 00:22:04,200 --> 00:22:07,160 Speaker 1: they're not as good at selling the product to the media. Um. 380 00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:11,719 Speaker 1: There are other companies that are phenomenal at selling product 381 00:22:11,800 --> 00:22:16,920 Speaker 1: to the media, like Apple, which also makes amazing products. 382 00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:19,760 Speaker 1: I'm not that wasn't a knock against their technical savvy, 383 00:22:19,840 --> 00:22:23,160 Speaker 1: but they are very very As the day we're recording 384 00:22:23,160 --> 00:22:27,600 Speaker 1: this podcast, Apple managed to to to get the media's 385 00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:30,960 Speaker 1: interest in a big announcement that turned out to be 386 00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:35,879 Speaker 1: the Beatles coming to iTunes yep. Um, Yeah, it's funny 387 00:22:35,920 --> 00:22:40,040 Speaker 1: to note, um actually that it wasn't that long ago. Now, 388 00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:42,159 Speaker 1: I mean this, this is one of Apple's announcements that 389 00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:45,720 Speaker 1: was pretty quiet and by the terms that they're frequent, 390 00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:50,440 Speaker 1: uh show stopping pr events that they managed to put on. 391 00:22:50,840 --> 00:22:55,280 Speaker 1: Um that they opened Safari up for plugins, and I 392 00:22:55,359 --> 00:22:59,560 Speaker 1: think that, uh, Apple probably sees the writing on the wall. 393 00:22:59,560 --> 00:23:03,280 Speaker 1: I mean, they're they're not even third in the browser wars, 394 00:23:03,840 --> 00:23:07,280 Speaker 1: but I mean they have a reasonable market share, but 395 00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:11,560 Speaker 1: it's still tiny compared to the big guys, and uh, 396 00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:13,520 Speaker 1: you know, I think that's one of the reasons they 397 00:23:13,560 --> 00:23:17,080 Speaker 1: are opening themselves up to allowing plugins is for things 398 00:23:17,119 --> 00:23:20,480 Speaker 1: like this social networking functionality. Yeah, to kind of head 399 00:23:20,520 --> 00:23:24,679 Speaker 1: off the impact that browsers like rock Melt and flock 400 00:23:24,840 --> 00:23:30,119 Speaker 1: could have. Um. I think the rock Melt and flock 401 00:23:30,160 --> 00:23:34,200 Speaker 1: approaches are really interesting. It it seems like it's a 402 00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:37,080 Speaker 1: big risk to me because it seems to be placing 403 00:23:37,119 --> 00:23:40,320 Speaker 1: the bet in that social networking is the way the 404 00:23:40,400 --> 00:23:45,359 Speaker 1: web will continue to grow. It'll be the the evolutionary 405 00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:50,600 Speaker 1: force that pushes the development of the web into the future, um, 406 00:23:50,760 --> 00:23:54,320 Speaker 1: which it's quite possibly true. But the problem is that, 407 00:23:54,359 --> 00:23:56,720 Speaker 1: you know, the future is really hard to predict, as 408 00:23:56,760 --> 00:24:00,360 Speaker 1: we have discovered every December here at tech Stuff, uh, 409 00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:05,320 Speaker 1: and that placing your bets like that can come back 410 00:24:05,359 --> 00:24:08,040 Speaker 1: to haunt you. It may be that two or three 411 00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:11,359 Speaker 1: years from now, no one would really be as interested 412 00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:15,600 Speaker 1: in a socially a social networking kind of browser that 413 00:24:15,880 --> 00:24:20,080 Speaker 1: like rock Melt because it no longer is relevant, right, 414 00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:23,120 Speaker 1: So it's a little dangerous in some ways. I would 415 00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:26,160 Speaker 1: say that the argument of going with a browser that 416 00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:29,199 Speaker 1: you can you can tweak with plugins might be the 417 00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:32,600 Speaker 1: better way to go. But on the other hand, going 418 00:24:32,640 --> 00:24:35,280 Speaker 1: with a browser with this stuff is h is built 419 00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:39,200 Speaker 1: into the browser means that it's at least in theory, 420 00:24:39,720 --> 00:24:43,440 Speaker 1: going to work properly. Because with plugins you can get 421 00:24:43,440 --> 00:24:47,159 Speaker 1: plug ins that end up interfering with one another and 422 00:24:47,240 --> 00:24:50,000 Speaker 1: can make a browser unstable. And you you know, so 423 00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:52,760 Speaker 1: if you've ever had Firefox and you've added a whole 424 00:24:52,760 --> 00:24:56,240 Speaker 1: bunch of different plugins and Firefox is really unstable, that's 425 00:24:56,320 --> 00:25:00,479 Speaker 1: one potential reason for that instability. Doesn't necessar certainly mean 426 00:25:00,520 --> 00:25:03,040 Speaker 1: that that's what's causing it, but it's possible It's also 427 00:25:03,080 --> 00:25:06,240 Speaker 1: possible that those the plugins could open you up to 428 00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:11,359 Speaker 1: security vulnerabilities and other problems, especially if it is a 429 00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:14,600 Speaker 1: UM developer who may or may not know what he 430 00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:18,560 Speaker 1: or she is doing very well. Somebody who's new UM 431 00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:21,280 Speaker 1: may not understand that, or even somebody who's experienced. I mean, 432 00:25:21,280 --> 00:25:23,719 Speaker 1: anyone can make a mistake. So, I mean, they're there 433 00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:25,840 Speaker 1: are all kinds of things that that do that. But 434 00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:28,360 Speaker 1: you know, it's funny that you would you would bring 435 00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:32,840 Speaker 1: up the big guys comparatively because I read an article 436 00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:36,760 Speaker 1: in Computer World by Greg Kaiser, who talked to several analysts. 437 00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:41,080 Speaker 1: Al hilwa At I d C said just that basically, 438 00:25:41,119 --> 00:25:44,080 Speaker 1: the big browser companies may very well just go, hey, 439 00:25:44,119 --> 00:25:46,959 Speaker 1: you know what, We're gonna offer plug ins that do 440 00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:50,600 Speaker 1: exactly the same thing as Rock Mountain Flock and basically 441 00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:53,800 Speaker 1: torpedo them before they can really make a dent in 442 00:25:53,840 --> 00:25:58,400 Speaker 1: the market UM. But Gardner's Ray Veldez suggested that it's 443 00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:01,359 Speaker 1: possible that Rock Melt is trying to do one of 444 00:26:01,359 --> 00:26:07,560 Speaker 1: the classic small business small tech business moves. He thinks 445 00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:10,960 Speaker 1: that it's possible that maybe they're going, hey, Facebook, yeah, 446 00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:13,439 Speaker 1: we got this really cool browser. It's really good. If 447 00:26:13,760 --> 00:26:16,679 Speaker 1: it had your name on it, maybe you want to 448 00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:20,119 Speaker 1: buy us. Yeah, we look really good. It's possible I 449 00:26:20,119 --> 00:26:25,919 Speaker 1: could see that happening. Um the it'll I'll be curious 450 00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:27,600 Speaker 1: to see how it all turns out. There are also 451 00:26:27,640 --> 00:26:30,960 Speaker 1: other questions that we honestly don't know the answer to yet, 452 00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:35,480 Speaker 1: Like because you have to sign into Facebook, does rock 453 00:26:35,560 --> 00:26:38,879 Speaker 1: Melt get any of that data? Right now they're saying 454 00:26:38,880 --> 00:26:41,680 Speaker 1: that they're not really they have no interest in that. 455 00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:44,879 Speaker 1: That's they're not looking at selling your data to advertisers. 456 00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:47,840 Speaker 1: But you have to wonder you're using Facebook connect to 457 00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:51,879 Speaker 1: launch this browser, and how much of that information is 458 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:56,480 Speaker 1: rock Melt privy to and and and how does that 459 00:26:56,760 --> 00:26:59,440 Speaker 1: now that that information is actually or that that connectivity 460 00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:02,919 Speaker 1: is baked in of the browser. Are their security vulnerabilities 461 00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:06,680 Speaker 1: that we don't know about, or that maybe rock Melt 462 00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:11,200 Speaker 1: itself hasn't anticipated that could come to haunt people who 463 00:27:11,320 --> 00:27:15,040 Speaker 1: who are early adopters of this this web browser. I 464 00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:18,600 Speaker 1: think I'll probably find out because I have it. Well, 465 00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:21,840 Speaker 1: here's something that as I was putting this research together 466 00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:24,880 Speaker 1: for this podcast, I would not have anticipated as an argument. 467 00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:28,960 Speaker 1: But again, as at the time we're recording it. Just yesterday, 468 00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:36,000 Speaker 1: Facebook announced that it was unveiling a new social messaging service. Now, 469 00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:41,240 Speaker 1: if rock Melt can build this into the browser, uh, 470 00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:44,440 Speaker 1: you know, with its integration with Facebook, UM, it would 471 00:27:44,520 --> 00:27:48,480 Speaker 1: make it basically an email program, a chat program, and 472 00:27:48,760 --> 00:27:51,680 Speaker 1: a social networking program, and then you wouldn't need necessarily 473 00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:55,920 Speaker 1: a separate mail client or a separate web browser. You'd 474 00:27:55,920 --> 00:27:58,959 Speaker 1: have it all in one piece of software. It actually 475 00:27:58,960 --> 00:28:04,280 Speaker 1: looks kind of like refined version of what Google Wave wash. 476 00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:08,720 Speaker 1: And it just seems to me that in a way 477 00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:12,000 Speaker 1: rock Mount may have been ahead of its game, perhaps 478 00:28:12,080 --> 00:28:14,879 Speaker 1: without even knowing it, just simply by you know, latching 479 00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:18,919 Speaker 1: onto the the Facebook wagon and following wherever Facebook goes. 480 00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:22,640 Speaker 1: So that could be just an added argument for that. Now. 481 00:28:23,040 --> 00:28:26,480 Speaker 1: Mozilla also not too long ago announced F one, which 482 00:28:26,520 --> 00:28:29,280 Speaker 1: is a set of a plug in that will allow 483 00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:35,720 Speaker 1: UM some functionality for UH social media purposes. I read 484 00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:37,960 Speaker 1: a little bit about it in a PC World article 485 00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:41,200 Speaker 1: by I'm afraid I'm gonna mispronounce his name kier Thomas 486 00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:45,840 Speaker 1: k e I r UM. But basically it allows you 487 00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:51,200 Speaker 1: to share UH links to different websites and UM works 488 00:28:51,200 --> 00:28:55,760 Speaker 1: with Twitter, Facebook, and Gmail. UM. But you know, it's 489 00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:59,000 Speaker 1: again another example of the big guys catching on and 490 00:28:59,040 --> 00:29:02,160 Speaker 1: going ahead and and and baking that in. If I 491 00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:03,840 Speaker 1: knew you were coming, I want to bake that into 492 00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:08,200 Speaker 1: my browser. That was a long way for a bad joke, 493 00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:12,400 Speaker 1: but I've gone, I've gone further distances for weaker payoffs, 494 00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:15,200 Speaker 1: so I can't really criticize. But yeah, I mean, it's 495 00:29:15,240 --> 00:29:18,120 Speaker 1: it's just it's weird to see, um, you know, in 496 00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:21,200 Speaker 1: the in the in the age of apps taking over 497 00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:26,200 Speaker 1: for the browser in some instances, um, something that's sort 498 00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:30,160 Speaker 1: of like a browser app, um, you know, specifically aimed 499 00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:34,880 Speaker 1: for a subset of web users. So that's, uh, it's 500 00:29:34,920 --> 00:29:38,000 Speaker 1: kind of a zag if you will, to the zig. 501 00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:41,280 Speaker 1: So I'll really be interested to see how rock Melt 502 00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:45,120 Speaker 1: performs once it comes out of beta and becomes publicly 503 00:29:45,160 --> 00:29:50,080 Speaker 1: available to everyone. Clearly, all the techy's immediately tried to 504 00:29:50,160 --> 00:29:52,520 Speaker 1: get an invite. I was very fortunate to get an 505 00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:57,240 Speaker 1: invitation from uh Mr tom Merritt, who was kind to 506 00:29:57,320 --> 00:29:59,560 Speaker 1: extend that to me, and then I immediately extended one 507 00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:03,920 Speaker 1: of my three invites to Mr Palette. So you yeah, 508 00:30:04,040 --> 00:30:06,600 Speaker 1: so so we that's how we managed to get into 509 00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:08,160 Speaker 1: that because we were not part of any of the 510 00:30:08,200 --> 00:30:12,560 Speaker 1: initial announcements or anything. But I can say that, uh, 511 00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:14,800 Speaker 1: you know, it's a browser. It goes quickly because it's 512 00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:17,880 Speaker 1: based on Chromium. UM. I don't like the fact that, 513 00:30:17,920 --> 00:30:19,760 Speaker 1: because of the way my screen is, I have to 514 00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:24,080 Speaker 1: scroll horizontally. Although I guess I could in theory tweak 515 00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:26,320 Speaker 1: it so that the page is a little smaller and 516 00:30:26,360 --> 00:30:28,200 Speaker 1: fits on my screen, it's just me. Just means that 517 00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:30,040 Speaker 1: I wouldn't be able to read things as easily as 518 00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:33,560 Speaker 1: as my eyes are getting old people. UM. So my 519 00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:36,480 Speaker 1: initial reaction is that it's an interesting way to keep 520 00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:39,360 Speaker 1: up with all your social networking stuff. It's also interesting 521 00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:41,040 Speaker 1: way to keep up with all those sites that you 522 00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:44,240 Speaker 1: really enjoy and you want to to know when there's 523 00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:48,959 Speaker 1: new content on those sites. But it's not enough for 524 00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:53,320 Speaker 1: me to adopt it as my primary browser. My primary 525 00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:57,600 Speaker 1: browser right now remains Chrome. Yeah, I can say, I 526 00:30:57,640 --> 00:30:59,920 Speaker 1: mean I could see that a night. I fiddle with 527 00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:03,640 Speaker 1: all honestly a lot of different browsers. UM. I've used flock. 528 00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:05,640 Speaker 1: One of the things I like about flock is that 529 00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:08,520 Speaker 1: you hide for the most part, you hide a lot 530 00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:13,120 Speaker 1: of this stuff um that normally would appear on the uh. 531 00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:14,920 Speaker 1: In this case in rock Melt, where you have that 532 00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:19,920 Speaker 1: persistent bar on the left, well actually both rails, um. 533 00:31:19,960 --> 00:31:21,160 Speaker 1: You know, you can hide a lot of that and 534 00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:25,000 Speaker 1: and and Flock. And I haven't tried the new version 535 00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:26,760 Speaker 1: of Flock that's based on Chromium. I used the one 536 00:31:26,760 --> 00:31:30,000 Speaker 1: that was based on Mozilla, which I liked very much. Um, 537 00:31:30,040 --> 00:31:32,200 Speaker 1: But I don't, you know, if Facebook is something I 538 00:31:32,200 --> 00:31:35,440 Speaker 1: don't use as often as some other people do, so 539 00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:37,960 Speaker 1: I usually check in two or three times during the 540 00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:40,720 Speaker 1: day and spend a lot less time on it, so 541 00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:43,160 Speaker 1: you know, I see the value in that. But I 542 00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:45,520 Speaker 1: do like the fact that the browser wars have heated 543 00:31:45,560 --> 00:31:47,880 Speaker 1: back up again a lot of times. Or right after 544 00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:54,560 Speaker 1: Internet Explorer essentially crushed what was then Netscape, people basically 545 00:31:54,600 --> 00:31:56,480 Speaker 1: said it was over with, and I'm glad to see 546 00:31:56,480 --> 00:31:59,680 Speaker 1: that people are putting new technology out there. Of course, 547 00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:02,720 Speaker 1: Opera UH, with its tiny, tiny market here, still has 548 00:32:02,760 --> 00:32:06,080 Speaker 1: some innovative features that others pick up on after that 549 00:32:06,200 --> 00:32:09,120 Speaker 1: and used to their advantage. But I still like Opera 550 00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:12,920 Speaker 1: an awful lot. I don't use it as my primary browser. UM, 551 00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:15,120 Speaker 1: but yeah, I think I think it'll be interesting to 552 00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:16,600 Speaker 1: see where it goes. I don't know that it will 553 00:32:16,640 --> 00:32:20,240 Speaker 1: ever be number one, but rock Melt certainly has its 554 00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:22,560 Speaker 1: place if it can, you know, once the bugs get 555 00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:25,920 Speaker 1: worked out. Sure, So we're gonna wrap this up. Guys. 556 00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:28,360 Speaker 1: If you guys have an access to rock Melt, you 557 00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:30,880 Speaker 1: want to let us know about what your experience was like, 558 00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:33,880 Speaker 1: you can let us know either on Facebook or Twitter. 559 00:32:34,360 --> 00:32:38,080 Speaker 1: Are handled, There is text stuff h s W or 560 00:32:38,320 --> 00:32:41,360 Speaker 1: you can write us an email. That address is tex 561 00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:44,360 Speaker 1: stuff at how stuff works dot com. Chris and I 562 00:32:44,360 --> 00:32:52,800 Speaker 1: will talk to you again really soon, Jonathan. Actually, this 563 00:32:52,880 --> 00:32:55,520 Speaker 1: was just handed to me. It looks like how stuff 564 00:32:55,520 --> 00:32:59,440 Speaker 1: works dot Com now has an iPhone app. Sweet awesome. 565 00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:02,239 Speaker 1: Yeah um, I got to to take a look at 566 00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:05,160 Speaker 1: this earlier, and guys, this is pretty cool. The iPhone 567 00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:07,640 Speaker 1: app is sort of a way to integrate all the 568 00:33:07,680 --> 00:33:09,600 Speaker 1: cool stuff we do at how stuff works dot com. 569 00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:11,440 Speaker 1: So you guys may have listened to one of our 570 00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:13,760 Speaker 1: podcasts and we talked about there's this great article on 571 00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:15,760 Speaker 1: the site, but you're not at your computer, so you 572 00:33:15,760 --> 00:33:18,520 Speaker 1: can't really check it. Well, the iPhone app actually lets 573 00:33:18,560 --> 00:33:22,240 Speaker 1: you browse articles and blog posts, even lets you interact 574 00:33:22,280 --> 00:33:24,400 Speaker 1: on Facebook and Twitter, and you can listen to podcasts 575 00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:26,560 Speaker 1: at the same time, and it has all the house 576 00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:29,000 Speaker 1: stuff works dot Com podcasts on it, not just ours, 577 00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:31,240 Speaker 1: but you know good ones too, so you can listen 578 00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:33,360 Speaker 1: to those and look at the articles and and go 579 00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:36,640 Speaker 1: on Facebook and Twitter and it should work perfectly with 580 00:33:36,680 --> 00:33:40,600 Speaker 1: your iPhones and iPod touch it awesome. What's uh? It 581 00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:42,920 Speaker 1: looks like it's now available on the iTunes store, so 582 00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:59,960 Speaker 1: that's good to know. How much does it cost? It's free, ah, 583 00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:02,760 Speaker 1: brought to you by the re invented two thousand twelve Camri. 584 00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:04,160 Speaker 1: It's ready, are you