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Google Chrome will block all NPAPI plugins by default in January, drop support completely in September | VentureBeat | News Briefs | by Emil Protalinski
Google today provided an update on its plan to remove Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI) from Chrome, which the company says will improve the browser’s security, speed, and stability, as well as reduce complexity in the code base. In short, the latest timeline is as follows: Block all plugins by default in January 2015, disable support in April 2015, and remove support completely in September 2015.
For context, Google first announced in September 2013 that it was planning to drop NPAPI. At the time, Google said anonymous Chrome usage data showed just six NPAPI plugins were used by more than 5 percent of users, and the company was hoping to remove support from Chrome “before the end of 2014, but the exact timing will depend on usage and user feedback.”
While NPAPI usage has continued declining since then, the drop has not been as quick as Google hoped. The latest usage data (for October 2014) shows the following launch percentages:
- Silverlight (11 percent of Chrome users, down from 15 percent)
- Google Talk (7 percent of Chrome users, down from 8.7 percent)
- Java (3.7 percent of Chrome users, down from 8.9 percent)
- Facebook Video (3 percent of Chrome users, down from 6 percent)
- Unity (1.9 percent of Chrome users, down from 9.1 percent)
- Google Earth (0.1 percent of Chrome users, down from 9.1 percent)
The above six are part of a small number of popular plugins currently whitelisted and allowed by default in Chrome (Silverlight is primarily used by Netflix users, but the company is slowly shifting to HTML5). In January 2015, Google plans to remove the whitelist, blocking all plugins by default.
Users will still be able to allow NPAPI plugins for specific sites by clicking on the “Plug-in blocked” message in the URL bar and choosing “Always allow plug-ins on [website].” Here is how that looks:
In April 2015, this will no longer be an option as NPAPI support will be disabled by default in Chrome and Google will unpublish extensions requiring NPAPI plugins from the Chrome Web Store.
Tumblr Overtakes Instagram As Fastest-Growing Social Platform, Snapchat Is The Fastest-Growing App | TechCrunch
With 1.35 billion active monthly users, Facebook continues to be the world’s largest social network by some margin, but when it comes to picking up new users, it appears to have reached a saturation point. Research out today from the Global Web Index notes that Tumblr’s active user base in the last six months grew by 120%, while Facebook’s grew by only 2%.
And in overall member growth, Pinterest took the lead with 57% growth while Facebook’s member base grew by 6%.
Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and even Google+ all grew faster than Facebook.
A More Efficient Solar Panel Can Be Made With Old Blu-Ray Discs
A group of researchers at Northwestern managed to make more efficient solar panels based off of the patterns on Blu-ray disc. They began by cutting off the edges a Blu-ray copy of the 1992 Jackie Chan flick _Police Story 3 _and opening up the disc. (It’s actually not a bad movie, especially for those of you into Hong Kong capers.) The researchers were after the quasi-random nanostructure that encode the data on the disc. _IEEE Spectrum _explains why the way data is stored on Blu-ray makes it relevant to solar panels, especially compared to other DVDs.
The researchers then used the open face of the Blu-ray disc to make a mold that was stamped over solar panels, giving the panels the same nanostructure pattern as the original disc. The Blu-ray-patterned solar panels ended up being 12 percent more efficient than smooth ones.
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HashKey: a dedicated 1-key keyboard for the hashtag by Ben Gomori — Kickstarter
We’re finally giving the hashtag its own key. The HashKey is the world’s first one-key USB keyboard – dedicated solely to the hashtag.