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.