Initially making its debut in June of 2003, the Safari browser (originally delivered as, believe it or not, an optional download from Apple) was an initial hit with Apple fans. It is no longer a widely used browser on the desktop however; having been eclipsed by Internet Explorer/Edge, Chrome, and Firefox. Though it is still possible to download Safari for Windows, the network traffic coming from the Windows version of Safari is negligible.

It has a very strong base amongst iPad and iPhone users, and so captures a significant percentage of mobile network browsing, meaning that most websites in North America are built so that their mobile presence works well on Safari. However, the mobile versions of Safari can only be used by iOS users, and are unavailable on the Google Play Store of the Amazon App Store.

It is pre-loaded on every Apple device, and thus is the top browser for both the popular iPad and iPhone, two of the most widely used mobile devices in North America. This pre-loading scheme has been a subject of controversy, as Apple has not allowed third parties to run browser engines on iOS. Most iOS users, however, seem content with the experience and most continue to use it as the Browser of choice.

Because of the discrepancy in use between Desktop and mobile, the two separate “forks” of Safari have caused some issues. The mobile version is highly stable, well liked and has a lot of advanced controls. However, the desktop version lagged badly behind in several features, and Apple only recently has started putting effort into bringing the desktop version up to speed, adding features that are already standards in IE/Edge, Chrome and Firefox.

Safari has unfortunately had the dubious honour of being the first browser hacked at the famous PWN2OWN CanWest Security Conference in 2008. It has repeatedly fallen under successive attempts at various PWN2OWN yearly contests, being successfully exploited a total of eight times (that is not as bad as Firefox, but worse than Chrome or IE).

Safari is great for browsing the web on your mobile device. I would recommend sticking with it if you have an iPad or an iPhone. AU students who tend to use desktops or laptops may consider alternative browsers for the browsing experience.

A specific note for students in the Faculty of Science Math courses, where Math elements displaying properly in the browser is crucial. In this environment, I would suggest using Firefox or Chrome, as they will tend to render mathematical formulas better then Safari (even the mobile version) will.

Dakota Soares is an entrepreneur taking his BSc through AU, and has many interests including music, information technology, and chicken producing.

You need a way to keep your data safe from harm and easily accessible. A backup plan, if you will. To create this backup plan, you’ll need a storage device and a way to easily back up your files. Here are some ideas for both:

First, our storage device. With the many different storage options on the market, it can be confusing to sift through them all. So what should you look for? First, find out how much space the device you use has. Try to purchase an external storage device that has at least the same amount of space, preferably double, than the computer You’re using. So if your laptop has a 1 TB (TB means terabyte, which means 1000 GB (gigabyte)) drive, aim for a 1 TB backup drive, preferably 2 TB. If your laptop has an SSD drive that can hold 256 GB of data, get a backup device that holds 750GB ? 1 TB of data. The bigger the better. After you have nailed down how much space you need (or want), your second consideration should be price range. Do I want a Lacie External Drive that is 1 TB, but costs $200? Or a 1 TB Seagate drive that costs $70? Figure out what you want to spend, knowing that sometimes higher prices mean faster access speeds (not really critical for backups) or better reliability.

Below is a table of price ranges for drive sizes that can help you see how this works (A note here. I do not recommend using an SSD (Solid State Drive) drive as a backup device. Though faster, if they fail, all data will be lost instantly and is not retrievable. “Cloud” backups are prone to being hacked and I would not use them for regular backups either. For the sake of backups for protecting sensitive data, we will stick with regular hard disk drives (HDD):

Once you have decided on the price and the size, consider where you are going to use it. Will you be traveling with it? If so, an ADATA shock-resistant drive from Canada Computers may be helpful. If not, a WD Passport from BestBuy may do. Remember that any drive above 2 TB must have a power cable as well as a data cable. If you have a computer with a large amount of storage space, and you need something above 2 TB, yet you travel a lot, consider only backing up school files. Bigger drives use more power and are less easy to carry around. Remember to balance what you need with what is portable.

Secondly, what program should you use to backup your files? There are so many on the market for both PC’s and Macs! With a Mac, you can use the built in Time Machine utility, or just copy your files over manually. On a PC, I recommend either the Comodo Backup or Cobian Backup software. Both are free. With Cobian, you can set what files or folders you want backed up, and you can even automate the process if need be. Whichever program or method you choose, remember to hook it up and do it regularly. I would recommend doing it every two weeks or at least once a month.

On other devices, such as an Android mobile device, if you can find a dongle that can convert your charging port to a USB port, then you are good to go. You can backup files straight to it by copying and pasting them to the external drive through the built-in file manager. If you have an iPad or an iPhone, backing up your data is limited to cloud options. Apple’s iCloud, Microsoft’s OneDrive, Google’s Drive, and Dropbox are all services you can use to backup files.

Finally, remember to store your backup safely away from your computer ? not right beside it if you can help it! One other thing is that a USB thumb drive may be ample as well if you just want to backup school work. A 64?128 GB Thumb drive should be ample space; they are small, and they can be taken everywhere.

Dakota Soares is an entrepreneur taking his BSc through AU, and has many interests including music, information technology, and chicken producing.

Firefox has about half a million users worldwide, and was the second most used browser (after Internet Explorer) until Chrome overtook both, pushing Firefox into second place and Internet Explorer into third. It currently makes up about 15 percent of the market according to StatCounter, and is widely used in Africa and Germany. IBM also encouraged its employees to use it as their default browser in 2010.

Firefox has a lot of features and is popular among Linux users as a powerful browser that can be customized and tweaked as needed. Some key features in Firefox include tabbed browsing windows, incremental finds, live bookmarking, smart bookmarks, private browsing (similar to Chrome’s Incognito mode), geo-location, and a download manager. For geeks and web developers, built in tools such as the Error Console (DOM Inspector) or Firebug can be used for testing web pages and for finding errors. Themes can also be added to Firefox, making it highly customizable. Unfortunately, Mozilla plans to discontinue the theme feature soon.

Firefox’s power comes from three things: back end implementation of web standards, security, and the highly customizable interface. I will run through these quickly, as they are mainly what sets it apart from Chrome.

Firefox implements a ton of web standards, including HTML4, XML, XHTML, MathML, SVG 2 (partial), CSS (with extensions), Javascript, XPath, Animated PNG images, client side storage, and a canvas element implemented through the Gecko layout engine. More could be added to this list, and even these may sound quite foreign to you. That is fine! As AU students though, one item in that list should have caught your eye is the MathML standard. This is the standard that renders many mathematical notations properly, and helps us as AU students to successfully complete our math assignments. Is it any surprise, then, that the AU Tech Support recommends Firefox? That is the main reason, and is one of the main differences between Firefox and Chrome. Firefox can display math notation better then Chrome can.

Firefox is also a secure browser. Researchers who discover bugs can even get a cash reward of up to seven thousand dollars if they find one. Firefox is often touted as a much more secure browser then the competition. One reason is the rate that bugs and vulnerabilities are fixed is much faster than browsers from other companies. The browser has repeatedly been praised for its security (Ponemon Institute) and is still regarded as quite secure.

In terms of customizing Firefox, the Firefox add-on store has over 8,000 different extensions (add-on programs that can provide additional convenience or information), themes, and plug-ins, making it extremely versatile and easily customizable. In 2015, Firefox updated its backend architecture for extensions to a design that is like Microsoft’s Edge browser and Google Chrome.

Firefox is a great all around browser for power users, and is recommended by AU’s Tech Center for its compatibility with Athabasca’s systems. If you want to check it out, you can download it at Mozilla’s website (just Google “Mozilla Firefox” and it will pop up). If you want to try out some add-ons and extensions, clicking on the hamburger menu in the top right of Firefox will give you a pane of options?one of which is labeled “Add-ons”. From there you will be able to head to the store and have fun browsing a whole collection of different web apps. Remember that you can get it on your iPhone and Android device as well.

Dakota Soares is an entrepreneur taking his BSc through AU, and has many interests including music, information technology, and chicken producing.

Chrome has many features that have made it a hit in the past years- from plugins and extensions to privacy and security features. It will soon become apparent why many users and businesses find Chrome a home on their computers.

On its initial release, Chrome was fast. It beat out other popular web browsers in speed, load times, and functionality. Since then however, the gap has closed, and in one test showing how browsers effect battery lifetime, Chrome slipped into 2nd place. Chrome is very stable, using “process isolation” to run each open tab separately from the rest- so if one crashes, the others will not be effected. Though this gives greater stability, it also makes Chrome a resource hungry browser, and it constantly tops out as the browser that consumes the most system resources to use.

Chrome has several different add-ins that users can use to customize Chrome. Extensions (downloadable through the Chrome Web Store) can greatly enhance a user’s experience. Popular extensions include Adblock Plus, Google Docs, Honey (an extension that helps you find coupons for online purchases), Lazarus Form Recovery (an auto save extension), Web of Trust (WOT) Reputation Ratings, Office Online, Google Hangouts, and LastPass (password manager), to name a few. Chrome also has plugins (these can only be disabled and new ones are added automatically), and can be customized via themes, which change the overall look of the browser. (You can get Chrome Themes on the Web Store).

Features that differ slightly from other browsers include the famed “Omnibox” search field, positioned in the middle of new tabs. And speaking of tabs, they make up the main portion of the interface, and are positioned, unlike some browsers, above the controls. They can be dragged around into new windows, duplicated, muted, pinned, and bookmarked. Another feature is “Incognito mode” which prevents the browser from storing browsing history and cookies from visited websites. don’t think you can get away with visiting sleazy sites though, developers can find ways to get into your browsing history despite having this mode enabled.

Last, Chrome is big on security within the browser. In a well-known hacking contest, Pwn2Own, held at the CanSecWest security conference, Chrome resisted hacks for three years. It did succumb to attacks in 2012, though, and has various times since. This was mainly due to the Adobe Flash element, a plugin Chrome has since disabled by default. Chrome uses two different updated blacklists to help protect itself against phishing and malware attacks. Users will also be warned if you visit a potentially malicious site.

As for what matters to AU students, for studies, and general research for studies, Chrome does very well. All tests with different websites within AU have been successful, and no errors were found in my experience. The IT helpdesk does support Chrome for various functions within the AU environment. Expect it to chew through your battery of your mobile device though; I would steer clear of this one for your phones and tablets, and mainly use it on the desktop.

PS: if you want to have some fun, disconnect yourself from the internet, fire up Chrome, and try to search something. An error will pop up with a little T-Rex (seriously!) Hit your space-bar and away you go on an infinite-running game!

Dakota Soares is an entrepreneur taking his BSc through AU, and has many interests including music, information technology, and chicken producing.

The internet is a massive place. As we speak, one quarter of the world is surfing Facebook, and five hundred million people (more than the US population) are on the social media site Google+. At this moment, over three and a half billion people can access so much data that it would take a fast reader (reading a page a minute) 8,466 years reading non-stop 24/7/365 to read every single word ever posted on the internet.

So what enables us to reach so vast a field of information so quickly and easily? You may have guessed the answer: a web browser. A program that does nothing but display content for viewing, yet gives us the capability to reach places unknown.

But what, exactly, does a web browser do, how does it function, and why is it so important? Almost everyone who owns a computer knows that a web browser, in its simplest sense, displays data that is put up by others around the world. As an AU student, you already know the basics of the browser of your preference. But have you thought about different web browsers and how they might help (or hinder) your academic development at AU? Different browsers, even put out by different companies, mainly do the same basic things, but with some notable exceptions (as you will find out!). Over the next several instalments I will be taking you on a journey into the “portals” that help draw humanity together in the 21st Century.

We will start with Chrome, Google’s browser, that can be used on almost all devices today. Next we will take a peek at Firefox, designed and built by Mozilla, and used mainly by geeks and other developers. Leading the race in the Apple lane, we’ll look at Safari, why it didn’t make the cut into the Windows environment, and what makes it a much-loved necessity for Apple users worldwide. Hopping over to Microsoft’s own web browsers, Internet Explorer and Edge (Project Spartan), we will look at why there are two, what the differences are, and why one is the butt of all the jokes from the tech community. We will also look at the last of the browsers that make up the forefront of advancing web technology, Opera. Rounding out our discussion will be a talk about mobile browsers for the phone and tablet, what differences are in them versus the desktop versions, and what can and cannot be done with them.

I invite you on a journey of discovery, as we take a look at the browsers that enable us to reach information and ideas that we never would have known. I hope you enjoy the upcoming series, and if you have any questions, please feel free to comment or contact me!

Dakota Soares is an entrepreneur taking his BSc through AU, and has many interests including music, information technology, and chicken producing.