Internet Explorer 8 Final is out

We hate it, we refuse to use it, but we can’t stop updating it. With Internet explorer 8 final released today, Maxthon can become faster and more compatible with standards by inheriting some of IE8’s engine changes, which makes the update to this new version of IE a must for every user out there whether you were using IE or not.

Download | Maxthon’s forum discussion

As always, IE8’s engine support can be enabled from the advanced section of the setup center. There has been no confirmed problems with Maxthon 2.5.2 and IE8 Final so far except for a rendering issue with Gmail, we will let you know when a fix is available.

Update: “ntzphyr” in Maxthon’s forum has found a workaround already, you can see his post here.

[Updated] Beta 2 of 2.5.2 released

Another bug-fixes update for the 2.5 branch, version 2.5.2.3272 Beta 2. This one has received very positive responses so far for its speed and stability.

And no, the popular show window frame option is still not back, patience is a virtue, guys.

Update: If you have downloaded this release before 15/3 please redownload as the “No focus on address bar when new tab is opened” issue was fixed in a new silent update (with the same version number).

Download | Announcement & Changelog

Maxthon 2.5.2.2801 beta

A new version has been released a while ago that includes fixes for the “Isolator” feature introduced earlier in 2.5. Nothing fancy, just a bunch of “underhood” fixes, but that’s a good reason to upgrade anyway If you are already using the 2.5 branch.

BTW: The ability to show window’s frame rather than the custom one is not back (yet), rest assured though, the team are looking for a way to add it back while keeping the new framework.

Download | Announcement

[Poll] The Return of the Newsletter?

On the early days of Maxthon 2 beta testing, I have set up a newsletter for new releases of the betas,  the newsletter has received a very good deal of attention and many have found it useful. Now, with the addition of numerous new ways to know when a new version is released, would you still be interested in a newsletter for Maxthon’s releases? cast your vote in the poll below…

Maxthon 3 to feature both Trident and Webkit!

More information about the upcoming major release has been revealed in the last two IRC channel meetings with Maxthon’s main developers, and as expected, Johnnylegend (you should have read this name several times by now) posted both logs on his blog.

If you have been following this blog you would know that a new engine will be available to Maxthon 3 in addition to Trident (IE’s rendering engine). the new engine is “faster and more [compatible with] standard[s]” and opensource, this means we were left with two choices: Webkit and Gecko, this time we know that it’s officially Webkit and this is definitely good news.

Newbies only: How to add a custom search engine to Maxthon

Adding a new custom search engine is pretty much common knowledge to Maxthon users, but as many people arrive here while searching for how to add Google or any other custom search engine to Maxthon I thought a tutorial should be here.

While I was about to write one, I found a great tutorial in a blog already made and complete with screenshots and clear explanation, the link to the tutorial can be found below, thanks Sezin Karli for saving my time and other Maxthoner’s time too!

http://scaramoche.blogspot.com/2009/01/custom-search-in-maxthon-2.html

What we know so far about Maxthon 3

During two scheduled meetings in Maxthon’s IRC channel, Bloodchen, Maxthon’s main developer and founder, gave a few hints about the upcoming major version of Maxthon, 3.0

If you have missed it you would be happy to know that Johnnylegend (a member of Maxthon’s community) is keeping transcripts for both meetings and makes them available for all Maxthon fans to read, you can find them here: http://en.wordpress.com/tag/irc-gg-general-gibberish/

But If you want to take the shortcut, here’s what we have learnt so far about Maxthon 3.0 and future plans ahead in the development…

Tip: Putting “URL Quick-Completion Shortcuts” feature to use

Some of you may have noticed this feature before, but few have actually used it as just pressing ctrl+enter to add www. and .com to the beginning and the end of the URL.

For those who haven’t figured out what this feature was, it’s the ability to customize the different shortcuts to add custom text before and after the URL, found at the top of the Navigation page in Maxthon setup center

Maxthon vs Chrome: Isolated tabs

Maxthon’s forum admin abc@home, has recently posted an insighful summary of the differences between Google Chrome’s multi-processes feature and Maxthon’s isolator:

Essentially, the anti-freeze technique is to make the user interface (menu, buttons, toolbars etc) independent of the tabs, which contain the browser controls and where problems often arise, and make each tab independent of each other. Chrome uses multi-process to achieve this while Maxthon 2.x uses multi-thread to acheive the same. Yet whether multi-process or multi-thread, it is not possible to be totally independent. There must be inter process/thread communications to be a unity.

Generally processes are more independent than threads. But a thread consumes less resources than a process, and a thread works more efficiently with other threads of the same process than a process working with another processes. Before 2.5.1, the multi-thread technique was limited by the traditional windows framework and did not work as effectively as intended. Maxthon 2.5.1 uses a new windows framework to perfect the implementation.

To read more about the Isolator feature of Maxthon 2.5 visit Maxthon’s official blog.

Two Dot Five

Just as you all thought that this blog was dead and there are no new updates for Maxthon, a beta of an all-new Maxthon 2.5 has been released today, giving me something to post about here, and it IS something!

Maxthon 2.5 is a major update not just because of the big version number but for the new changes done to the tabs; before, even with the multi-threading feature on the browser may freezes for a while If a tab freezes, and the original anti-freeze feature wasn’t exactly perfect; as the tabs were still part of the browser itself.

Now with 2.5, each tab is considered as a seperate window, If a tab hangs, the main interface remains responsive, allowing you to close the tab or reopen it, this also means If a tab crashes it won’t take the whole browser down with it, Maxthon will notify you, too.

For the announcement, download link and changelog, click here.