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The Browser Wars are in full swing with the new standards of HTML5 and CSS3 making their way into use. Some of the fiercest competitors are lingering old versions of the browsers. If you’re wanting to use a cool new feature, this site can help you understand which browsers will support it. The site currently lists compatibility for Firefox 3.5 and Safari 4 on Mac and these versions for Windows:

• Firefox 2, 3, 3.5, 3.6
• Safari 4
• Chrome 2
• Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8
• Opera 10

Aptana Studio is an IDE, Integrated Development Environment, that specializes in making it easier for web developers to organize and find resources for their projects. Microsoft’s Visual Studio and Eclipse are two popular examples of IDEs. Aptana provides a lot of the same type of functionality the Visual Studio does, but specializing in web development. Aptana, now at version 2.0.2 (though I did most of my developing in version 1.5), natively handles PHP, HTML, Javascript, and more web app languages.

I was recently inspired to refresh my PHP and MySQL abilities, so I assigned myself a little bit of a programming challenge. Part of my inspiration also stemmed from never wanting to choose a place to go out to eat with friends, so I crafted the challenge to create a web application that would allow me to randomly choose a restaurant that would please all members attending. What I came up with in the end, I like to call Friendstaurant.

Friendstaurant allows you to:

• Add Friends and state any restaurants they dislike (or don’t want to go to)

If over the recent holidays, you had the passing thought “How can I update my blog while I’m away?” be sure to continue reading. If you’ll have a laptop and wireless where you’re going, you’re all set but what about on the road or even off-road? If you’d like to update your WordPress blog from your smartphone, then you really should have the WordPress Mobile Admin plugin developed by Rich Gubby of Mobile Web Junkie. There’s also another plugin that can automatically adapt your blog to a more mobile friendly CSS if it’s being visited by a smartphone.

I’ve written two unofficial mods for phpBB3 forums previously that worked very well for those using the Prosilver theme, the MP3 inline attachment mod and the FLV inline attachment mod. Recently, I was asked in the forums how to make them work for the Subsilver2 theme, the other popular theme that many styled themes are based on. After puzzling on it for a long time and decoding the makeup of the Subsilver2 theme, I figured out a way to make it reliably work. Installing this mod will allow you to place inline .flv or .mp3 files to be played streaming with a simple Flash player.

If you’re looking for an easy way to figure out how your visitors are interacting with your website, you might be interested in ClickHeat. ClickHeat adds a small bit of Javascript to a web page and then will record where clicks occurred, even if they weren’t links. This would be important if you’ve recently redesigned your website and visitors are not finding it as intuitive as you’d like. Say there’s a deceptive image that everybody thinks should be a link, you would see a lot of clicks on that image even though clicking it does nothing. ClickHeat provides an easy, non-invasive way to do some basic usability testing for your site.

This morning I received an e-mail from Google AdSense inviting me to check out the new interface they’re working on developing in a limited Beta test. I’ve captured some screenshots to share the sneak preview of the coming changes. It appears to be an overdue overhaul and the e-mail touts these benefits:

- Comprehensive performance reports: View your daily stats in graph format, and gain insight into new metrics such as the amount you’re earning from different ad types, targeting types, and bid types.

Wibiya creates a Javascript-powered toolbar that attaches to the bottom of the screen and stays there without any jumping as the user scrolls. Wibiya is currently in invite-only mode, but you can request an invitation be sent to you and a few days later be creating your account, invite in hand. The toolbar improves the user interface of almost every website by providing a consistent location for users to clearly find different aspects of your site. It also engages your visitors, allows you to communicate with them directly, and encourage them to further explore your site. You may have seen the Wibiya toolbar on a number of sites because it is very simple to implement and its functions are very comprehensive as to the needs a website will typically have. Not only is the Wibiya toolbar very comprehensive, but it’s also customizable. You can choose everything from the color scheme of the toolbar to the apps that appear on your toolbar.