explorer

What do you feel like for dinner? Where can we go for amazing pizza? Replace the last word of either question with another meal or food type, and you have the two most dreaded questions on the face of the earth. Maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I think we can all agree neither question is a welcome one.

The next time you hear either question, calmly open up the closest Web browser, be it mobile or desktop, and type lm4sqtfy.com into the address bar. If the question included a food category, enter it into the … Read more

World Explorer is an app that lets you enter any of the 350,000 locations in the app's database and see images and descriptions of that location. Working with the Mac's geolocation capabilities, you can also see what's near you. The app installs quickly.

The World Explorer interface presents you with a dialog box to enter a location, then three panes underneath show images, an illustrated description, and ratings of the feature or nearby features. Lookups are fast, and we ended up discovering lots of things around us that we hadn't seen before, as well as … Read more

It's been almost a year and a half since Microsoft released a test build of Internet Explorer (IE) 10 for Windows 7. Since that time, Microsoft officials have refused to comment as to why there were no further builds or when a final version of IE10 for Windows 7 would be available.

On October 17, there was finally a ray of hope for those IE10 loyalists wanting Microsoft's latest browser on Windows 7. In an IEBlog post, Microsoft officials said a new preview of IE10 for Windows 7 would be out some time in November 2012.

Microsoft delivered … Read more

It's official, users will soon be able to surf the Web on their Xbox 360. Microsoft announced today that the Internet Explorer browser will be included with a new update to the Xbox 360 dashboard. The update will come with the release of Windows 8 on October 26.

"Starting today Internet Explorer will begin being rolled out on Xbox LIVE and will be available to Xbox LIVE Gold members," Internet Explorer's General Manager Ryan Gavin wrote in a blog post today. "IE on Xbox enables you to view content on the web on your TV … Read more

If you stick with your software's default settings, you're letting the programs' vendors determine how much security is right for your system. Those vendors have their best interests in mind, not yours.

As I pointed out in last week's post titled "Ten simple, common-sense security tips," PC security doesn't have to be complicated. However, not all important PC security measures are easy to implement. Follow these less-than-intuitive steps to block Flash cookies, lock down your browser, and test your Facebook profile's privacy.

Note that not everyone needs the level of protection offered by … Read more

The Do Not Track proposal seems to be causing confusion and frustration among some W3C members charged with approving it.

Once ratified, the DNT policy would require advertisers and other third parties to turn off tracking for Internet users whose browser settings specifically restrict it.

The push for DNT has already created a chasm between advertisers, who naturally want the policy to be as lean as possible, and privacy advocates, who want tough standards.

Browser makers have also been caught in the furor. Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, and Internet Explorer already include DNT settings. But Microsoft has caused waves by … Read more

Contre Jour may look like little more than a high-gloss version of Cut the Rope, but that sheen goes a long way. Last year, it earned top honors from Apple itself in 10 countries across Asia and Europe, and starting today you can play Contre Jour on the Web for free for the first time.

It appears to faithfully replicate its gameplay from the iPad, right down to the multi-touch controls required to advance in the third chapter. But while the game is pretty to look at and fun to play, it's a showcase -- like Google's Cirque du Soleil experiment … Read more

Columbus Day has attracted its share of detractors in recent years among indigenous peoples' groups and others. That's not to mention the widening recognition that Christopher Columbus ended up in the Americas through some remarkably bad navigational skills and then set about conquering its people through slavery, disease, and other little bits of nastiness.

Suburban St. Louis business owner Karl Frank Jr. has always had similar sentiments. While taking in media reports on the death of Neil Armstrong that compared the shy moonwalker to Columbus, Frank says a light bulb went off. He contacted a few nerdy friends and soon a petition was drafted to re-dedicate Columbus Day as "Exploration Day." … Read more