I was surprised to learn that the new version of Firefox is 15% faster than the previous version. When I say surprised I actually mean I didn’t believe a word of it. I decided to challenge this figure by putting Firefox 3.5 and Firefox 3.6 up against each other in a series of three benchmarking tests. I also included comparisons with the latest versions of Chrome, Opera and Internet Explorer. In the name of transparency, I’ve decided to explain the benchmarking process for each of the three tests I applied. Why not try it for yourself and see which of your web browsers runs the best?

Test One:  Peacekeeper Browser Benchmark

Peacekeeper is a free service that puts your browser through its paces in a series of thorough tests. It checks performance in the following areas: rendering, social networking, complex graphics, data, Document Object Model operations, and text parsing. Each test takes about five minutes and simple involves hitting a button on the Peacekeeper site in the browser you want to test. To make a fair test you should ensure that you just have one tab or window open, and disable or uninstall any extensions you have running.

Peacemaker gives each browser an overall performance score, and you can view a more detailed breakdown of how that score was arrived at by clicking the ‘Details’ link on the graph. Here’s the graph generated by the browser tests I performed:

Test Two: SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark

The second test I performed was the same one run by Computerworld in its tests on Firefox 3.5 and 3.6. The SunSpider JavaScript benchmark is a utility that tests the speed of a browser by running a series of JavaScripts and measuring the speed at which the software process them. It breaks the results down into a series of different categories based on the scripts it ran. These results are a little harder to interpret than the Peacekeeper test, but you can look at the total time and use this as your benchmark for comparing the browsers. Here are the overall times (fastest first) for the browsers I tested:

• Chrome 4.0 - 649.4ms

• Firefox 3.6 - 1415ms

• Firefox 3.5 - 1700ms

• Opera 10.10 - 3051ms

• Internet Explorer 8 - 6346.2ms

Test Three: The Acid 3 Test

The third and final test is much quicker and simpler than the previous two. The Acid 3 Test is used to measure a browser’s compliance with web standards, particularly relating to the Document Object Model and JavaScript. To pass the test a browser needs to attain a score of 100/100 and the final image it displays must match the reference image.

Of the five browsers we tested, only Google Chrome and Opera attained the maximum 100 out of 100. Firefox 3.6 (94) and Firefox 3.5 (93) both almost made the grade. Microsoft should hang its head in shame though, because IE8 only scored a measely 20 out of 100, meaning it falls way short of standards compliance.

Analyzing the results

Our benchmarking supports Computerworld’s claim that Firefox 3.6 is much faster than version 3.5. In fact, according to the SunSpider test we ran, the newer release comes out 17% quicker than the previous version. It’s still not as speedy as Chrome though, which was more than twice as fast as Firefox, and way ahead of Opera and IE.

What’s more, the Mozilla browser performs very well against its competitors in the Peacekeeper benchmark. Again, it’s only Chrome that pips the latest version of Firefox. And again, Internet Explorer is left floundering in final place, this time in a test than examines the overall capabilities of the browser.

So, my advice based on these results is to upgrade to Firefox 3.6 if you haven’t already done so. Better still, install Chrome and use that to browse the web instead. Having said this, ut’s definitely worth running the benchmark tests on your own browsers because the results can vary considerably depending on your setup, the amount of extensions that you have installed, the OS you’re using, etc.

Last night I was reviewing messages in my Gmail account, trying to get them all sorted out and reach the much-coveted inbox zero. I needed Gmail to display only my unread emails so that I could process them one by one, when I realized Gmail didn’t have that option anywhere. Sure you can select all unread messages, but that’s of little use if they’re all scattered over a dozen pages. So I started searching for a solution, and only a few minutes after I found Gmail Advanced Search.

The advanced search options in Gmail let you use special words or symbols – called operators - to filter the messages displayed on your web browsers. It’s a quicker, more accurate way to find certain messages. You can filter you inbox to display only unread emails, only starred emails or only emails that came from a specific sender. What’s more, you can combine different operators and create super-refined filters like “messages from Peter with the word ‘dinner’ in the subject”.

These are some of the most useful operators you can use in Gmail:

• from: - displays messages received from a certain sender: from:peter
• to: - displays messages sent to a specific recipient: to:john 
• subject: - displays messages with certain words in the subject: subject:bbq
• label: - displays messages filed under specific labels: label:work
• in:(inbox, trash, spam) - displays all messages stored in any of those locations: in:trash
• is:(starred, unread) - displays messages you’ve starred or haven’t read yet: is:unread
• filename: - displays messages with a specific attachment: filename:softonic.pdf

I guess it was Nintendo who invented ice levels in platformers, and since then it’s become a video game standard. Whatever you’re playing, you can bet at some point you’ll be asked to continue what you have been doing for the last few hours, but on slippery surfaces. I’m not a fan, possibly with the exception of the snowy levels in Mario 64.

I Hate Ice Levels is an ode to everything we dislike about these staple levels. It’s unbelievably tricky - I got cramps in my fingers after ten minutes playing! It’s meant to be a satire of ice levels, and as such it works well. It’s also a tough challenge for anyone who thinks they’ve got skills when it comes to platforming. Play it here - requires Flash.

We’re big fans of Twitter here at Softonic, so I was surprised when I realized that we haven’t actually written a post about the best clients for PC. Well, fret no more, because I’m about to remedy the situation. Read on…

Echofon is a great option for serious tweeters. Although it seems to get uglier with every release, it’s still the OnSoftware team’s first choice. It integrates into Firefox, doesn’t take up much room, and makes it easy to post and switch between Twitter accounts. Try it!

Saezuri is equally light and flexible, but this app operates from your desktop, not the browser. It has pretty much the same features as Echofon, so if you like the sound of the add-on but don’t use Firefox, this is the client for you.

DestroyTwitter is guaranteed to make an impact. Scary name aside, it’s also a powerful Twitter client. A member of the AIR family, this sleek black app uses tabs to keep your tweets, contacts and messages under control.

Twhirl is the perfect solution if you want something even lighter. Fast, easy to use, but fully-featured, this AIR application is a great option. It also allows you to customize the interface and update frequency, as well as having support for various accounts.

TweetDeck is probably the most popular Twitter app on Softonic. It’s quite a looker and has lots of features, making it almost as good as using Twitter directly. It also integrates into Facebook and MySpace, but it isn’t weighed down by the extra functionality.

Seesmic Desktop is a tool you often see on twitter rankings, but it doesn’t make my top ten. Although it is a perfectly useful Twitter client, it also has a lot of additional non-Twitter related features. If you do want one app for all your social media needs, check out Sobees, AlertThingy or Yoono Desktop. They all do a similar job, but are more streamlined and nicer to use.

Update: Sorry, there aren’t any codes left. Thanks to all who entered!

We love Battlefield Heroes, the free to play online shooter. It’s unusual in that it’s not serious, with its cartoony style, and the fact you can buy upgrades for your avatar: Costumes, experience upgrades special moves and even gestures (in game emoticons).

The  latest addition to Battlefield Heroes is the Vampire vs Werewolves pack, which for about $10 gets you a new outfit, special moves and more.

Electronic Arts have given OnSoftware 15 Nicolai Vampire packs and 15 Grims Varg Werewolf packs to pass on to our readers. So if you’re a fan of Battlefield Heroes and want to get one of these hellish upgrades for the game, leave a comment including your email address in the ‘email’ field below, telling us which pack you’d prefer. It’s first come first served so be quick!

I have to say I started using bookmarklets only a few months ago, but since then they’ve saved me a lot of time and certainly hundreds of clicks. Now, what exactly is a bookmarklet? In plain English, it could be defined as a small application stored as a bookmark on your web browser. When clicked, a bookmarklet can perform a variety of actions, usually involving the website you’re currently visiting and the service the bookmarklet is linked to.

There are literally dozens of bookmarklets available on the Web. Most online tools, web apps and social networks nowadays include a bookmarklet to make them easier and faster to use. I’ve created a list with the most popular and useful bookmarklets I’ve come across, but feel free to add more in comments!

• Convert any web page to PDF with PDFmyURL

• Make web pages more comfortable to read

• Share videos, links and music on Facebook

• Shorten URLs for easier sharing with bit.ly or tr.im

• Add anything you see online to your Amazon Wishlist

• Share interesting links more easily on Delicious

• Make microblogging simpler with Posterous or Tumblr

• Create a printer-friendly version of any web page

• Send any web content to your Kindle in one click

• Locate an address on Google Maps right away

This week’s timewaster is casual gaming at it’s best: simple, addictive and relaxing. Gluey is essentially Bejewelled, but with liquid blobs. Click any gluey blob with two or more eyes to make it disappear, and the blobs around it will roll and join together if they’re of the same color.

Start playing, and before you know it you’ll have lost an afternoon! The colorful graphics are well animated and the music suits the relaxed pace of the game perfectly - although eventually you might want to turn that off. Play Gluey from your browser, and install Flash if you don’t already have it!

Bored of your blog? All tweeted out? This week I’ve been having a second look at Tumblr, which sits somewhere between those two. When I first played with it over a year ago I wasn’t very excited. I don’t know what’s exactly happened since then, but Tumblr looks great now!

You’re not limited to 140 characters, but like Twitter the social aspects are central and built into Tumblr. Posts are split by category - text, photo, quote, link, chat, audio and video - and sharing any of these things is a breeze. The site gives you a Dashboard, which shows you a news stream of posts by you and the people you follow, like Twitter, but as it supports rich media, your Tumblr dashboard will be full of audio, video and images.

Go to the website to set up your account with an email address, and then off you go. The site looks good and is very usable, but even simpler is the Firefox add-on Tumblr Post. If you want to share something, simply drag it to the little icon in the status bar, and it will post on your Tumbleblog automatically! Until computers achieve sentience, I’m not sure blogging could be easier!

When away from your computer, that’s no excuse as there are Android and iPhone apps that allow you to blog just as easily on the move. The free iPhone app Tumblr is especially well designed, allowing you to record audio, photos and video on your phone and upload them, as well as use all the other Tumblr features.

While I love Twitter for keeping up with news, Tumblr seems much more fun. It doesn’t have the huge user base of Twitter but I’m sure it will grow as more people try it, as it’s so easy to get into. Come on, join in: Facebook and Twitter are so last decade!

Gravity Hook managed to pass me by, which is a great shame. With an extremely simple mechanic, it’s very addictive once it ‘clicks’.

You start the game as a subterranean human, in a craft equipped with a Gravity Hook, and you want to know how far down you are. The space above is filled with mines that explode on touch - you can drag yourself towards them, but must let go before you hit, flinging your craft upwards, to hook onto the next mine. It takes a few goes to get the hang of it, but when you do you’ll be swinging your way upwards with ease. Play it in your browser here.

I love reviewing Firefox add-ons; they’re the perfect software - small, fun and useful. I’ve noticed that there are loads of music add-ons out there, and so you don’t have to sift through the silt to get the gold, I’ve done it for you.

For pure listening pleasure, you can’t go wrong with FoxyTunes. No, it’s not new, but there’s a reason why it’s gone the distance - it’s practically perfect. It seamlessly links your music player to Firefox, so you get the best of both programs without even leaving the browser.

If you’re the kind of person who prefers to be surprised, you may well be a Last.fm fan. If you do use this handy service, then you need to download Fire.fm as soon as you can. This add-on will gives you access to the complete Last.fm library from within any webpage you’re viewing.

Personally though, I’m a Spotify user, and I know lots of you are too. Spotify Search is the perfect add-on for people like us: if you’re reading about a cool-sounding group online, one click on the Spotify Search icon will allow you to search for and display all of the Spotify results for the artist. In fact, Jon pretty much sums it up in his review - “Spotify Search…should be a no brainer for Spotify users”!

Play Them All is one browser enhancement add-on that has me very excited. This cool little add-on detects all the .MP3 links on any given webpage and converts them into a playlist for you to enjoy. This one looks like it could be a winner for dedicated music fans who spend a lot of time online looking for new music and inspiration.

If you’re a radio fan, you could do worse than checking out radiotic. It’s still in the early stages of development and hasn’t got a vast selection of stations, but it supports quite a few and provides the variety that lots of people who listen to online radio are hoping to find. The developers mention that they are taking user requests, which means even more stations are sure to be added. And who knows, the next one could even be your personal favorite!

The twelfth annual Independent Games Festival has released the winners of the Student Showcase category. Don’t think that “student” equals amateurish or poor quality - there are some amazing games in the list, and some will no doubt go on to be commercial titles like DigiPen’s Narbacular Drop, which turned into the wonderful Portal.

The best thing about the list? Of the ten finalists, only two are unavailable, but the other eight are free to play!

There are cool puzzle games (Continuity, Puzzle Bloom and and Puddle), strange 3D experiences (Devil’s Tuning Fork and Dreamside Maroon), art games (Spectre and Ulitsa Dimitrova), and the adrenaline rush that is DigiPen’s Igneous. All are great reasons to be excited about game development, mixing experimentation with great playability.

Dive in and get playing!

It’s come to something when even the State has to speak out on how atrociously bad a piece of software is. In this case, the French and German governments have seen fit to declare Microsoft Internet Explorer a security threat and issued official statements advising users to switch to Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.

Surprise surprise however; the British government has decided to go along with the Americans on this issue. The Americans being Microsoft and the issue being the gaping security holes in IE.

The British government have decided not to endorse this view and recommended that instead users take a look at getsafeonline.org. And would you believe it, apart from sounding like some kind of online contraceptive, getsafeonline.org has been set up by both the British government and Microsoft, amongst others.

While I don’t generally agree with states sticking their nose in on such issues - and most are absolutely years behind on this one - I do think powerful interests need to take a stand against Microsoft. They have cunningly managed to ensure that Internet Explorer has found its way into almost every home computer by bundling it with Windows and it’s taken until the release of Windows 7 for users to be spared having it pre-installed when they purchase their machine.

Ok, so I’m a Mac user and a bit biased on this issue. But today I’m once again a little ashamed of my government: so vive la France and well done Germany!

If you’re thinking about starting a business from home, congratulations! It’s a great challenge for the new year and could turn into a lucrative venture. You’re brave too, starting out in difficult financial times, which is why we’ve decided to make things a bit easier by gathering together some of the best free, home-business oriented tools around.

First, make sure your clients know you exist. Unfortunately, free business card software is thin on the ground. Luckily it’s easy to order them online cheaply and, in the meantime, you can download a trial version of a program like Business Card Designer Plus or Advanced Business Card Maker and experiment with possible designs and layouts.

Having a website is crucial. If you fancy building your own, take a look at a tool like MoreMotion Web Express. Bear in mind that you can also use a blog as a website; Wordpress is a great place to start. It’s easier than making a website and, if you have little or no experience, the finished product is much more likely to look professional.

Now they know you’re there, make sure your public can get in touch! Skype is the first stop - there’s a professional version, but it’s oriented towards multiple-employee situations. It’s good to aim high, but you’ll have to wait a while for that! If you’ve decided to use Outlook (and many don’t) there are some great tools out there to keep your inbox spam-free and under control.

Once your name is out there and the emails and calls start pouring in, you’ll need tight management to make sure everything’s under control. For a start, don’t even think about spending your hard-earned cash on Microsoft Office. OpenOffice will do a perfect job and is completely free, while Open Workbench will help you keep a close eye on your projects. Sooner or later, the money’s sure to start pouring in. Make sure you’re up to the accounting with a suitable program - GNUCash is sure to do a great job!

Paradox Embrace is a puzzle platformer in which you travel between different times to complete puzzles.  You character can flip between three eras, using portals that exist amongst the platforms.

To progress you’ll need to find keys and potions, which will only be accessible in particular eras. You may need to move from the future to the stone age to avoid a machine, for example. While it could be very confusing trying to essentially play three games at the same time, the creators have put in a great hint system that keeps you on target, without making things too easy.

You can play Paradox Embrace from your browser, and it requires Flash.  It’s not a short game, and thankfully your progress is automatically saved, so as long as you don’t clear your browser history, you’ll be able to play through at your leisure.

In the many hours of software research and reviewing we do at Softonic, one issue that constantly crops-up is that of paid software updates.

Personally, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve read complaints by disgruntled users that they are being asked to shell-out yet more cash to update an app.

Currently, developers can charge what they want for any kind of update even if it’s a simple bug fix or security update meaning they’ve got users over a barrel. Of course, in reality, most developers aren’t as unscrupulous as this and usually only charge when they’ve added significant new features to a product.

However, this is where the controversy lies. What constitutes simply a new feature and what constitutes a radically new product? Recent trends suggest that users are becoming increasingly demanding about what should constitute a paid update and how much they’re prepared to pay for it. For example, almost half of all iPod Touch users refused to pay the $5-10 to update to iPhone 3.0. Chikita Research found that:

Despite its hype, iPhone OS 3.0 had very little to offer iPod Touch users. Push notifications? MMS? Tethering? Essentially useless on a device that relies on WiFi for a connection. iPod Touch users are essentially asked to pay for copy/paste, in-app purchases, and the ability to buy a segment of the latest apps from the app store.

Apple meantime insisted that the update did add new functionality to the iPod Touch in a typical example of how user and developer opinions differ. Read the rest of this entry »