A considerable amount of internet users are of Indian origin, almost half as much as the ever-present U.S. of A. On Twitter, India is effectively one of the largest demographics. Although we’re only talking about a minority of the total Indian population, they’re an internet force to be reckoned with.
While the other major players are now finishing up their next browser release, a new player has entered the field. A new browser from Indian soil.
Epic Browser
The Epic Browser – never shy in their nomenclature – is based off the Mozilla codebase. This doesn’t mean that it’s made by the Firefox guys, but rather shares the same open-source back-end; the same foundation. As such, it’s an incredibly powerful browser by default, but made into an even more versatile tool by the Epic team – as will be seen below.
The title and the next paragraph highlight an important aspect of the browser; it’s made by and for Indians users. That means that some of the features will be rather useless to the rest of us, but Epic is far from useless to the rest of the world. Ignoring these specific features, it’s a strong candidate on the international browser market as well.
Fitted to Indian Users
If you’re Indian, as we know many of our readers (and actually a fair share of our in-house writers) to be, the Epic Browser will sound even more enticing to you, as it comes packed with a number of India-specific features.
On the left hand side of the screen, you’ll find the India sidebar. This is constantly updated with the latest local news from a number of online sources, but also allows you to view flight information, stocks, and much more.
The standard theme of Epic isn’t all that, but you can choose from over 1500 alternative themes and wallpapers, all based on India. You can expect themes of nature, architecture, and even famous cricket players.
Last but not least is an Indian usability improvement. The browser recognizes romanized Indian, on any given website, and converts in to Indian.
Sidebar Applications and Add-ons
We already told you that Epic was a powerhouse browser. Most of the extra functionality will be found in the left sidebar. This comes packed with over 1500 different applications. Think Gmail, Facebook, Orkut, Twitter, but also Google Maps, To-do lists, Snippets and Write, an actual word processor.
A couple of applications, like Write, also work in compliance with your Windows desktop. Most prominently are the Explorer-alternative and full-fledged back-up solution.
Because it’s based on the Mozilla codebase, you can install any existing Firefox add-ons as well. Separate from the versatile and numerous sidebar applications, that’s over 10.000 additional extensions!
Privacy and Security
The Epic team is heavyset on your computer’s and personal security. Amongst the sidebar apps, the browser includes a free antivirus application powered by ESET. This allows you to not only scan your downloads, but your entire system as well. With new threats rising every day, you can’t be too safe.
With a single click, you can delete personal browsing information, similar to Firefox. It’s one of the first browser able to kill the worrisome Flash cookies. Similar to Google Chrome, there’s also a private browsing mode, where all history, cookies and cached pages are disabled. Finally, Epic has vowed to never store your browsing or search data. Ever.
Although the design sometimes tends to look premature, the Epic Browser has shown it a strong contestant in the everlasting browser battle. This browser is deemed ready for not just India, but the whole world. Have you had a chance to download this new Mozilla browser and try it yet? Let us know what you think in the comments.
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Err….. not meant for people who use linux ?
Or Mac?
Thanks so much for your support and interest in Epic We’re working on Linux and Mac versions!
Epic works on Linux machines at present via wine.
http://techie-buzz.com/foss/install-epic-browser-in-ubuntu-with-wine.html
Thanks so much for your support and interest in Epic We’re working on Linux and Mac versions!
Epic works on Linux machines at present via wine.
http://techie-buzz.com/foss/in…
wtf is “romanized Indian”? For having a “fair share” of Indian in-house writers you are incredibly ignorant. I think the language you’re referring to is Hindi.
The author is probably referring to something like using English script instead of the native UNICODE script. I am imaging the browser making use of google transliteration service to do this automatically. See http://www.google.com/transliterate/ to see this in action.
Like irha said, I meant ‘the representation of a written word [..] with the Roman (Latin) alphabet’ (wiki/dict), and ‘Indian’ also indicating the regional Indian languages, not just the official Hindi (or in written word, Devanagari).On all pages with text input, you’ll see a language selection pane. Type in one of the ‘romanized Indian’ languages (pardon my french), and Epic Browser will ‘convert’ it to the native UNICODE script when you hit enter.Hope that’s cleared up.
Oh ok. Thanks for clearing it up. It’s just that there are too many people who call Hindi “indian” and it just annoys me. I hope I didn’t offend you.
Don’t worry about it. Critique is never exclusively a bad thing, unless so intended, but a way to judge current, and often alter due course.I don’t think those people mean bad either, but rather have only superficial knowledge, or aren’t done learning all about the subject. It’s much like the mix-up between England and the UK, or a more common example, Holland (province of…) and the Netherlands (…the country). :-)
The author is probably referring to something like using English script instead of the native UNICODE script. I am imaging the browser making use of google transliteration service to do this automatically. See http://www.google.com/translit… to see this in action.
It’s the first time I’m hearing about the Epic browser, but I’m glad to somebody’s catering to the burgeoning amount of the Indian internet users. This post also seems timely as it coincides with India’s independence day (15 Aug)
This browser made a fuzz in all local indian newspaper when it was first released. But it is loaded with toooooo much of bells and whistles. Sometimes all I want is to simply browse and thats it.. Simplicity does matter.
What features do you deem ‘over the top’? Or what would you cut off, if you had a magic reprogramming knife?It’s not a native set-up, but you could try Chrome with the Indian transliteration extension, or Firefox with the transliteration add-on.
I would like to borrow the answer by firevas (below) to answer your question. And also I am already using chrome with transliteration bookmarklet. (Thanks for your suggestion)
The answer for “what would you cut off, if you had a magic reprogramming knife?” is anything that chrome dosen’t have but epic does.
Like irha said, I meant ‘the representation of a written word [..] with the Roman (Latin) alphabet’ (wiki/dict), and ‘Indian’ also indicating the regional Indian languages, not just the official Hindi (or in written word, Devanagari).
On all pages with text input, you’ll see a language selection pane. Type in one of the ‘romanized Indian’ languages (pardon my french), and Epic Browser will ‘convert’ it to the native UNICODE script when you hit enter.
Hope that’s cleared up.
What features do you deem ‘over the top’? Or what would you cut off, if you had a magic reprogramming knife?
It’s not a native set-up, but you could try Chrome with the Indian transliteration extension, or Firefox with the transliteration add-on.
I’ve heard about Epic as soon as it went live. I wasn’t interested because I was satisfied with chrome and they didn’t provide a Linux version. Today, I’ve tried it on wine and I must say, I’m pleasantly surprised. The first thing I’d want to tell people is, just try this one once, without any prejudice. In one sentence, I’d say this browser is a mini OS by itself, complete with a word processor, anti-virus scanner, to do list, games, easy theme manager and what not! I mean, this adds a lot to Firefox. This is not just for the Indians, come-on! Do they restrict people in other countries from using it? NO! It is, without any doubt, a browser from India with a default Indian feel. That’s it. They don’t ‘restrict’ the browser only to the Indian market, AFAIK. I was, for a moment, amazed why the guys at Epic have chosen Mozilla as their base instead of Chromium. But now, I realized that chromium doesn’t have the ‘flexibility’ and ‘versatility’ of Firefox, “yet”.
You’re right. Epic is a browser with an Indian character, but with a broader, international usability.
I would like to borrow the answer by firevas (below) to answer your question. And also I am already using chrome with transliteration bookmarklet. (Thanks for your suggestion)
The answer for “what would you cut off, if you had a magic reprogramming knife?” is anything that chrome dosen’t have but epic does.
how can i integrate internet download manager with epic?
I am also facing the same problem which Mr. Nitish is facing. I tried a lot to integrate epic in download manager but failed. I went ot advanced option, but it didn’t work for Epic. Epic is an excellent browser with a lot of feature. But, for downloads with download manager, I have to use Firefox or Internet Explorer.
Epic is based on the Mozilla (Firefox) code, so you can use regular Firefox add-ons. Try Flashgot, it works with all major and most lesser-known download managers.
Don’t worry about it. Critique is never exclusively a bad thing, unless so intended, but a way to judge current, and often alter due course.
I don’t think those people mean bad either, but rather have only superficial knowledge, or aren’t done learning all about the subject. It’s much like the mix-up between England and the UK, or a more common example, Holland (province of…) and the Netherlands (…the country). :-)
I think it is a terrific concept to integrate so much additional functionality to a browser and demonstrates the strengths of open source software. Kudos to EPIC team.