A new application in the Windows 8 Store is 4Browsers. As the name suggests it’s 4 browsers in 1. This tries to solve a problem with Windows 8 apps, that is their single-tasking nature. Sure you can snap an application to the side of the screen, but power users want to do more.
The app costs A$1.99 which I bought so you don’t have to. I am a power user and often find myself heading for the desktop. While the Metro version of IE10 supports tabs, it doesn’t solve the ‘I want to see multiple sites at once’ problem.
4Browsers also has the flexibility of display two sites horizontally positioned just like a split screen Halo match. For best results you will need a high resolution display (hat tip to the MBA Retina). Because this app uses the same rendering engine as the metro IE10, you’re also stuck with the same limitations.
The biggest limitation is no plugins. Like it or hate it, a lot of sites haven’t made the transition to HTML5. I had hopes that I could become my go-to video wall by visiting TWiT.tv, YouTube, ABCNews24 and Slingbox. Turns out, I’m out of luck. TWiT requires Flash, some YouTube videos still require Flash, ABCNews24 requires flash and Slingbox runs on Silverlight.
That issue aside, the app works as advertised, but still has me jumping out to the desktop for serious power user actions.
