In very popular move, Google have announced the launch of the Google Android Native Development Kit which will allow software developers to build applications that will run directly on the Native Android platform. Up until recently Android applications were written in Java and ran on the Google Dalvik Java virtual Machine. The native developer’s kit lets software run on Linux although Google sees this as a way of running component based Android applications and not fully fledged programs.

Android applications run in the Dalvik virtual machine. The NDK allows developers to implement parts of these applications using native-code languages such as C and C++,” said Google’s David Turner in a Native Developer Kit blog post.

This move has caused Mozilla to start an investigation into building a new version of Firefox which will run exclusively on the Android platform. The Mobile version of Firefox is known as Fennec but insiders believe the Firefox will continue to use its existing brand.

“Developers are taking a look at the NDK to see if it provides the capabilities we need to bring Fennec to Android. If it’s possible, I think our community would be interested in doing it, because Android will be appearing on more smartphones with the capabilities to provide a good browsing experience,” said Jay Sullivan, Mozilla’s vice president of mobile.

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Finally after a long period of Beta testing Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) has finally been released, this hot browser is publicly available and can now be downloaded from the Microsoft website. On the same day, in a cunning publicity move, Google Chrome has launched Chrome Experiments, a unique site which has been designed to showcase the power of Google Chrome and its unique JavaScript capabilities. Will you be rushing to download the new IE8? Click here to visit the IE8 website.

So how has IE8 improved and will the upgrades convince dedicated Firefox and Chrome Users to move away from their existing reliable browser platforms? IE8 is definitely a lot faster it boots up quickly and tab sessions are treated as individual processes, as in Chrome. This means that if a webpage now decides to crash, is slow loading or has errors, it will not affect the entire browsing session, just the specific tab. This will come as great relief to existing IE7 users. Microsoft have also looked at the tab processes and improved the usability. If you open a new tab, IE8 will group the tads by domain, placing the new tab to the right of an existing webpage tab. This great improvement will mean that pages from the same website will be grouped in the tab navigation rather than sending it to the end of the line, allowing browser sessions to be easily recognised. Another handy feature is the ability to drag tabs into tab clusters allowing them to become part of the browser session. IE8 uniquely colour codes the tab to mark it as part of the group and if any one of the tabs in a session is lost then IE8 will reload the tab and the page into its original position so nothing is lost.

Two other great features are Accelerator and Web Slices. Accelerator is a user experience enhancement designed by Microsoft to make the browser experience flow more fluidly. By right clicking on a webpage you will access the Accelerator context menu which will give you access to unique features like Live Search Maps, Email content to a friend and Post to a Blog or Facebook. This facility is still in its early stages of development but the more website developers that get on board with the technology the better the functionality will be in the future. Web Slices allows you to add and monitor web pages and web content from your tool bar. You could configure it to keep track of your emails or update you about an Ebay auction you’re following. The service uses a form of RSS technology but unfortunately the toolbar restricts the amount of content you can add. IE8 also includes Private Browsing (know by developers as “Porn Mode”) which allows the user to anonymously browse websites without leaving tracks or personal information.

The new IE8 is a massive improvement on IE7 but the jury is still out as to whether Google has done enough to temp Firefox users to betray their beloved browser.

Google Chrome has taken the opportunity to directly challenge the release of IE8 by launching Chrome Experiments, a website which has been designed to showcase the power of the Chrome browser and its outstanding JavaScript performance. There are 19 amazing animated games to play with and it’s well worth a visit. One of the experiments called Google Gravity, allows you to collapse the Google homepage into a pile on the base of the browser but still allows you to use the Google search facility and view results. Browser ball is a fun game that allows you to throw a beach ball from one browser window to another. The site is well worth checking out and offers a glimpse of the power of the Google Chrome platform. Click here to visit Google Chrome Experiments