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A Peek at AT&T's New Browser, Pogo
An anonymous reader writes "Ars Technica takes a look at Pogo, a browser from AT&T with new features like a 3-D history and bookmark view. The browser's currently in a private beta and Ars' comments aren't all necessarily glowing — particularly in the areas where performance is concerned. 'It requires Windows XP SP2 or later or Windows Vista, and its minimum hardware are surprisingly steep: a 1.6GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, and a video card with at least 256MB of VRAM. Seem like a bit much for a web browser? It is, and as we found out, these requirements posed some major challenges for us during our testing.'"
in fact, it sounds like it's going to be a bit of a stinker.
Perhaps they should rename it to Pongo.
(Sorry)
Summation 2
maybe they are trying to cache the internet?
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
It's not just made for Vista. It's modeled after Vista too.
Since it doesn't run on Linux it will never achieve widespread mainstream acceptance on the desktop.
Don't get them thinking about a Thunderbird-based email client!
I want it to report simultaneously to the DHS and the NSA, when I change my vest and underpants.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
On the plus side, it reports all your browsing activity to AT&T.
AT&T
Your world delivered
(to us)
So, I'll need special glasses to see my history?
Walt Kelly was right: "we have met the enemy, and he is us".
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
So will your significant other.
There is no longer a significant other. He received a driver components mismatch error.
..since I'm an AT&T customer, it feels like there are two unasked questions.
1.) What is AT&t going to do to make sure that this is the only browser that I use? Certainly something more than a silly EULA. How about automated litigation if I step a foot off Ma Bell's Farm?
2.) What can Bell do to offer me more choice with their browser? In other words how can they help me by blocking anything other than a heavily proxied port 80. Mail, it should sit on AT&T's webmail, where they own it and copyright whatever I say. FTP, thats for terrorists. We need more choices, you know, like cable TV.
Judging by the screenshots, it looks like some AT&T execs happened to catch a marathon of those 1990s cyber-thrillers which featured portrayals of that mysterious new "Internet" thing that was starting to get noticed, and decided the real Internet should start looking like those Hollywood mockups.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
I need more RAM.
I saw it on Slashdot, it must be true!
Lex turns to the clueless paleontologists, "This is Pogo! I know this!"
[
Semantically equivalent to, "I drive a Pinto, but only in reverse."
Let's apply the recipe for detecting shitty software without evaluating the code:
1. Only runs under Windows (check)
2. Extremely poor performance or stellar system requirements compared to similar products (check)
3. Bloated with useless features and eye candy which don't actually improve the user experience (check)
4. Requires vbrun.dll (nope)
3 out of 4 aint bad?