Finally, we have the first Indian internet browser and by Indian, we did not mean the Indian flag that it has on it’s logo. Launched by a Bangalore based company Hidden Reflex, Epic is all set to make Indians proud.
Epic, based on Mozilla platform, comes bundled with a bunch of India centric features and is available for a free download here. After testing it for continuous 4 hours on 8 tabs together and without any crash, We are impressed.
The Looks and Features:
It is light, spacious and neat. By default, comes with a peacock background which may not be too soothing to eyes but you can always choose the background according to your whim from a range of 1500 creative themes related to India at the launch itself.
Then, comes the flashy sidebar which is a host of each and every necessary application to which a sincere netizen is addicted to. They include social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut, Twitter, a Gmail file back up, Yahoo India homepage, maps, travel planner, news concerning India(customizable states!) and everything else! Also, there is an option to choose between the applications to keep on your sidebar. But, you can use one widget at a time; the sidebar allows you to browse any one of the above listed widgets at one time per window which increases accessibility on a widescreen resolution to a high extent. The tabs are neatly designed, clean and smooth transition effects between menus and tabs win attention. The buttons on the sides of the address bar are colourful(Indian, after all!) and slick. We took some beautiful screenshots during the test, which must be shared.
Theme: Sachin Tendulkar
What’s Good:
Open Epic, visit any site which offers text box to write to discover the wide range of Indian languages, currently 12, it offers to write in there. This is applicable to chat boxes of Facebook and Gmail too. The engine of the browser is decently fast and there are no compatibility issues. And the most interesting part, Epic is the first browser to come up with an anti-virus(25mb download) built in as a widget.
The built in ESET NOD32 Anti-Virus.
What can be done better:
The browser fails to render page borders of the sites opened in every tab making them look a little bit tacky. We hope they correct it soon in upcoming update patches.
The Conclusion:
An initiative, first of it’s kind in India, that must be appreciated. We look forward to have slick improvements in the update patches.
Epic, based on Mozilla platform, comes bundled with a bunch of India centric features and is available for a free download here. After testing it for continuous 4 hours on 8 tabs together and without any crash, We are impressed.
The Looks and Features:
It is light, spacious and neat. By default, comes with a peacock background which may not be too soothing to eyes but you can always choose the background according to your whim from a range of 1500 creative themes related to India at the launch itself.
Then, comes the flashy sidebar which is a host of each and every necessary application to which a sincere netizen is addicted to. They include social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut, Twitter, a Gmail file back up, Yahoo India homepage, maps, travel planner, news concerning India(customizable states!) and everything else! Also, there is an option to choose between the applications to keep on your sidebar. But, you can use one widget at a time; the sidebar allows you to browse any one of the above listed widgets at one time per window which increases accessibility on a widescreen resolution to a high extent. The tabs are neatly designed, clean and smooth transition effects between menus and tabs win attention. The buttons on the sides of the address bar are colourful(Indian, after all!) and slick. We took some beautiful screenshots during the test, which must be shared.
Theme: Sachin TendulkarWhat’s Good:
Open Epic, visit any site which offers text box to write to discover the wide range of Indian languages, currently 12, it offers to write in there. This is applicable to chat boxes of Facebook and Gmail too. The engine of the browser is decently fast and there are no compatibility issues. And the most interesting part, Epic is the first browser to come up with an anti-virus(25mb download) built in as a widget.
The built in ESET NOD32 Anti-Virus.What can be done better:
The browser fails to render page borders of the sites opened in every tab making them look a little bit tacky. We hope they correct it soon in upcoming update patches.
The Conclusion:
An initiative, first of it’s kind in India, that must be appreciated. We look forward to have slick improvements in the update patches.
| Featured Comment: Shad Khan said... What epic does is, it combines the very best features of all the popular browsers, be it Firefox, Opera or Chrome (omnibox taken from Google Chrome, side widgets like Opera, Firefox's speed and stability). For all those who question the innovativeness, does anyone notice the small internet side widgets? Facebook, Gmail and all?. The interface of all those small widgets is same as what you see on an iPhone. When you open a website it assumes you're surfing on an iPhone and compresses the website accordingly which is helpful in two ways:- 1) Saves data (assuming you're accessing internet on your laptop using a mobile) 2) It's faster than accessing the full version of the same website. Seeing that Epic was launched just 10 days before with more than 2 lakh downloads and a positive response from the internet community it could be the next big thing in the internet browser market. |
16 Comments:
Dekho basically mere hisab se ye cheez hai to Mozilla Browser hi, bas ek Indian feel daali hai...
Matlab jo cheezein kam ki hain,unhe side bar pe daal diya..bas.
Anti virus thing with a browser is cool new approach,but the feature that I have used most is the attached word processor tool.
While surfing the internet papa ka phone aaya aur kisi uncle ka number likhwane lage.Waise to notepad bhi run karna koi bada kaam nahi...but browser wala text editor kaam mein aaya.. :)
I forgot list the word processor but you listed it. Thanks for that. Of course I agree, Mozilla hi hai but it's India's own.. with hindi fonts and languages integrated aur India wali feel. We must apprciate that. :)
Well, I guess Its better if its basically Mozilla.
See. None can deny that Mozilla is a very good browser. If Epic can take on where Mozilla leaves, the Indian Mozilla lovers get a reason to enjoy.
What's the point in reinventing the wheel again? :P
I liked the indianized collection of themes...especially the one tht says.. 'Fir Milenge, written over a truck's back. " :P
@Alok I agree dude. The themes are beautiful and have the essence of each and every part of India.
Nice looks. Though it would take some time adjusting to the sidebar.
For me, it satsifies my Indian ego. For centuries we have been working behind the curtains in software development programs. Now its showtime! ;)
Are sachin tendulkar wala sahi hai...
Seems good.
But I wonder how having an antivirus in a browser would help me. I already have one installed in my comp.
Why integrating a special browser anitvirus?
You were talking about using hindi in facebook chat.
How to do that? I can not figure out with the sidebar...
I liked it lot specially the sidebar containing tons of widgets..Only problem is that its not that spacious compared to chrome..But since it's Indian we must appreciate it and hopefully it will come with even more features in its newer version.:)
One thing that I am not getting is the recurring logic in the post and the discussion that ensued... "Since its Indian, we should appreciate it."
I think that its a bad logic. We can not appreciate anything, good or bad thats Indian." That's jingoism.
I liked epic, coz' its new, functional and is reasonably flawless.
@Payal Yeah, enjoy! ;)
@Pravy Yeah, and I liked Pondicherry beach too..
@Animesh R You have got a valid point, dude. But look at this way,you download something and scan it in your browser itself from your download folder or cache rather than copying it in your hdd and then scanning with your own installed anti-virus.
@Satish Yes. Open Facebook chat window>at the right, just above the text box where you type, you will see a drop down menu with greyed 'hindi' selected>Click on it>Choose the language you want to write in>start writing; as soon as you hit space after any word in the text box, it gets translated! To revert back to normal choose 'Turn off' from the drop down menu.
@Anonymous I agree, it looks better with widescreen resolution.
@Manish Well, had it not been Indian, who would have cared to look into finer details. Every hour, we have a new invention in the tech world, generally we appreciate those which we can relate to easily or those which are strikingly awesome. And, features always matter. Epic is no doubt flawless but India is its USP. :)
It's not Firefox, it's not Opera, it's not Chrome, It's frigging Epic people. If Google comes up with chrome extensions it doesn't mean they are copying Firefox's Add ons. Same is true for Firefox which is moving the tabs above the address bar in the next version 4 similar to chrome.
What epic does is, it combines the very best features of all the popular browsers, be it Firefox, Opera or Chrome (omnibox taken from Google Chrome, side widgets like Opera, Firefox's speed and stability)
For all those who questions the innovativeness, does anyone notice the small internet side widgets? Facebook, Gmail and all?. The interface of all those small widgets is same as what you see on an iPhone. When you open a website it assumes you're surfing on an iPhone and compresses the website accordingly which is helpful in two ways:-
1) Saves data (assuming you're accessing internet on your laptop using a mobile)
2) It's faster than accessing the full version of the same website.
Seeing that Epic was launched just 10 days before with more than 2 lakh downloads and a positive response from the internet community it could be the next big thing in the internet browser market.
Hehe, on an entirely unconnected note, I like the enthusiasm of the last comment. :D
@Mohi... wanna add something? :)
@Shad Dude, we are featuring your comment in the review. :)
@Alok yeah, I did. :)
hehehe Thanks :) You did a very good job. Terrific review. Just as i expected :)
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