Remembering… Netscape

This week, we salute the king of browsers

Back when the internet was still a little new and didn’t have the polished gleam of HTML5 and other sorts of impressive modern content, we lightly moved from one home grown web page to the next using Netscape. Well, most of us did, anyway.

Netscape was lightweight, and it didn’t rely on the constant drip-fed advertising that Internet Explorer was pushing on early users of the web. It was a simple browser for a simple internet, and it evolved into something more complex as the online world grew around it.

The 20 Pieces Of Equipment That Every IT Professional Should Own

Mark Pickavance reveals the gadgets and gizmos that help anyone who works in IT to perform at their best

If you work in IT or just take your computing seriously, then having the right tools for the job is rather critical. Trying to bodge something or just running into a brick wall can make a small job take much long than it should, and in a business context, time usually equates to money. However, a few mostly inexpensive items can provide you with the key accessories to help you fix problems and do so efficiently.

Here are some of the items that IT people should own or have access to in the modern computing environment.

Ubuntu Touch – Android Rival?

What is the Ubuntu Phone OS actually like? Chris Salter gives it a test

There are currently three big phone operating systems: Android, iOS and Windows. Combined, the three have a huge share of the smartphone market, certainly in the Western world. However, they aren’t the only phone operating systems about, and the likes of Firefox OS and Ubuntu Touch have been looking at changing that, if not in the West, then in the emerging markets, where high-end smartphones along the lines of Apple and Android are being challenged by locally produced and cheaper alternatives.

Bookeen Cybook Ocean

If you haven't heard of the Bookeen Cybook Ocean before, theyn you're not alone, because we certainly hadn’t either. However, it’s quite a popular e-reader in its native France, and it does offer something a little different from the other e-readers we have on test.

The Cybook Ocean is a monster of an e-reader, the huge 8" e-ink screen dominating the device and making it feel more like a tablet than most e-readers. But the 1024 x 758 display with its pixel density of 160dpi and 16-level greyscale isn’t too shabby.

Nook GlowLight Plus

The Nook didn’t have a very good start here in the UK. Created by the American bookstore Barnes & Noble, it has gone through a number of changes and is classed as the entry-level device next to the Samsung Galaxy Tab Nook models that Barnes & Noble now offers, primarily because B&N took a bit of a hammering in the market over the Nook and now sells Samsung tablets with a Nook interface.

Kobo Mini

The second Kobo e-reader of the group, the Kobo Mini, isn't actually being produced any more, but it's being sold online and through a number of high-street shops and online, which is why we've included it here.

It’s certainly a small e-reader. Weighing 134g, it has 5" touchscreen and measures 102 x 10 x 133 mm. The 800 x 600 e-ink screen has 16-grey levels, and the Kobo Mini contains roughly the same features that the previous e-readers in this group have: 802.11b/g/n wi-fi, 2GB of storage, and the ability to read ePub, PDF, TXT, HTML and so on. Sadly, though, it lacks a backlight, but you can alter the contrast, and you can further improve the reading of the screen by tweaking the sharpness of the font.

Kobo Aura H20

The Kobo Aura H20 is the successor to the hugely popular Kobo Aura HD that was released a few years ago. Since then, Kobo has made some slight changes to its line of e-readers, but the Aura still remains at the top of the range.

This is a 6.8" screen with a Carta e-ink HD touchscreen and a maximum resolution of 1440 x 1080, which puts it well into the realms of the tablet world but also makes it one of the highest-quality screens out of all the e-readers on test.

Ectaco jetBook Mini

The Ectaco jetBook Mini is the more modern version of the ill-fated Ectaco jetBook Color Deluxe, a larger 9.7" e-reader that tried so hard to be an allin-one educational reader, but which failed at nearly every step. Has the company been able to improve things since then?

It has a 5" 640 x 540 display, with 16-levels of greyscale and a featured ‘no glare’ technology. It measures 116 x 126 x 20mm at its thickest point, dropping to 10mm at the thinnest part. It’s reasonably pocket-sized, but the design is really quite awkward, with an almost game controller look to one end of the device.