One of the best gifts that of our faith that we as Catholics can avail ourselves of is Confession. However this is also a gift that has become sorely underutilised by Catholics all around the world. With this in mind, a new app has been released for the ubiquitous iDevices, which aims to help make going to confession an easier experience.

Confession: A Roman Catholic App, is the first application released by a developer in Indiana. Designed to help with making confession, this is a powerful application that delivers a personal experience. Personalised to your vocation in life, it guides you through a custom examination of conscience, helping to probe what is important to your relationship with God. Packed with information, it helps those who have been absent from the confessional for a while who might be a little rusty with getting closer to God through the power of Absolution. This fantastic application is also available for Android devices too, so is worth checking out to see if it’s available for your smartphone. Owners of iDevices can go to http://bit.ly/Confess-iTunes, and if you have an Android, check out http://bit.ly/Confess-Android.

People short of a fancy techno-gizmo aren’t left empty handed by the internet – check out The Penance Project (www.thepenanceproject.org) for a downloadable Penance kit.

Have you spotted something you’d like a geeky perspective on? Let the Catholic Geeks know and we’ll include it in an upcoming post!

It’s not often that many people consider the software that they use to access the internet. The humble web browser has changed a lot over the last few years. As the web has evolved from simple web pages to vast swathes of high-quality multimedia and complex applications, so too have most web browsers adapted to support the changing needs of the average internet user.

The very fact that we use the plural of ‘browsers’ speaks volumes for how much the scene has changed. Since the first real ‘browser war’ of the late 1990′s, the dominant web browser has been Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) – an application they have offered for free for many years. However, after resting on their laurels for too long, the code that was the basis for IE’s former competitor, Netscape, re-appeared as the new browser Firefox.

Since then, a number of other browsers have appeared on the market – all vying to take market share from Microsoft. Google’s Chrome, the Opera browser and Apple’s Safari have all become contenders. And whereas IE used to hold well past 90% of the market, it now holds under 50% by most counts, vs. Firefox at over 30%!

With all this competition and increasing amounts of money being associated with the eyeballs viewing the internet, the browser arms race has begun anew. The latest salvos have been fired in the form of Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 4. Both boast vastly increased performance, hardware acceleration, security fixes and support for thousands of plugins and enhancements – and both are totally free.
Since browsers are often the biggest target for viruses and malware nowadays, it’s a good idea to keep your browser up-to-date. While you’re at it, maybe try switching to someone different and see if updating your browser can improve your internet experience.