Firefox 4's Last Beta?

Mozilla has begun to wind down work on the next generation of its Firefox browser. In today's release of Firefox 4 beta 12, there are few improvements that will be instantly noticed by most users. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, what has changed are under-the-hood improvements to how Firefox 4 handles Flash and more stable overall performance.

One visual change has been to move hover-over links to the bottom of the window, rather than place them in the location bar as was done in the previous beta. Along with the changes to Flash handling and stability, Mozilla said in its release notes for Firefox 4 beta 12 that the browser now has better integration of add-ons with hardware acceleration support.

The company hopes that this beta will be the last, according to an updated roadmap. The release of the twelfth beta indicates that all the hard-blocker bugs, the highest-priority problems with the in-development browser, have been fixed. Barring major problems with the remaining bugs, users can expect a release candidate soon.

Souce: http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-20036645-12.html?tag=mncol;title

Microsoft Releases Windows 7 SP1

Microsoft has released SP1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 helps keep your PCs and servers on the latest support level. It also provides ongoing improvements to the Windows Operating System (OS), by including previous updates delivered over Windows Update as well as continuing incremental updates to the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 platforms based on customer and partner feedback. This enables organizations to deploy a single set of updates.

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 will help you:
● Keep your PCs supported and up-to-date
● Get ongoing updates to the Windows 7 platform
● Easily deploy cumulative updates at a single time
● Meet your users' demands for greater business mobility
● Provide a comprehensive set of virtualization innovations
● Provide an easier Service Pack deployment model for better IT efficiency

You download the almost 2GB file from the link below...

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Source: http://iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=14008

Redbox Launches Android App, Updates iPhone App

Movie rental company Redbox is trying to improve its standing in the mobile market.

The company announced today that it has launched a new Android application that will allow its customers to look through available titles, find one of its kiosks around the U.S., and reserve films from the app. In addition, it updated its iPhone app to make the software more responsive to users when they rent movies. The app also now supports box art.

Redbox's iPhone app has performed well. The free application has been downloaded over 2 million times since its launch in December 2009, the company said.

Redbox, which is owned by Coinstar, offers DVD and Blu-ray rentals at 26,000 kiosks around the United States. The company recently came off a difficult fourth quarter, missing revenue and profit forecasts due to the impact rental delays had on its operation.

"Overall, the performance of the Redbox business during the fourth quarter was not in line with our forecast," Coinstar CEO Paul Davis said in a statement at the time. "This was Redbox's first holiday season with 28-day delayed titles, and we underestimated the impact that the delay would have on demand during the fourth quarter."

Redbox is currently required to wait 28 days before it can rent content from Warner Bros., Universal Studios Home Entertainment, and Twentieth Century Fox. Those delays helped studios increase sales during the fourth quarter and prompted the rental firm to miss its forecasted rentals by a whopping 14 million units.

In addition to service improvements in the mobile business, Redbox recently updated its Web site to aid customers in picking films they want to watch. Customers are able to reserve up to five films at a time before they head down to their local kiosk to pick them up.

Redbox's iPhone app and Android app are available for free in the App Store and Android Market, respectively.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20032052-17.html#ixzz1EAGbw1C0

Netflix Streaming Finally Arrives In Boxee Box

Boxee announced today that Netflix streaming is finally available to owners of the company's Boxee Box. In order to access Netflix streaming, users will need to either wait for the automatic update to take effect within the next 24 hours or manually update their set-top boxes.

"Netflix support was the most common request we had on our blog comments, forum posts, tweets, etc.," Boxee CEO Avner Ronen said in a blog post accompanying the announcement. "We heard you loud and clear. We were bummed that we could not make it happen earlier, but are very excited to have it out today."

When the Boxee Box first launched in November, the company said that it would make Netflix available by the end of 2010. After hitting some snags, it promised that Netflix was "still on track" for a launch at the end of January. Earlier this month, Boxee said in a blog post that it wasn't able to hit its self-imposed deadline because it had "not yet satisfied Netflix's security requirements."

Luckily, that wait is finally over. But now Boxee has some catching up to do. Netflix streaming has been running for quite some time on several of the device's competitors, including the Apple TV, Roku set-top boxes, and the Logitech Revue, among others.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20031870-17.html#ixzz1DybZeD95

Flash 10.2 Arrives With More Efficient Video

Adobe Systems released Flash Player 10.2 today, bringing a technology called Stage Video designed to be easier on computing devices' processors and therefore batteries.

Tom Nguyen, product manager for Flash platform runtimes, offered this glowing account for the Flash Player 10.2 announcement:

Stage Video lets websites take advantage of full hardware acceleration of the entire video pipeline...Stage Video hardware acceleration means that Flash Player can play even higher quality video while using dramatically less processing power, giving users a better experience, greater performance, and longer battery life. In our testing across supported systems, we've found it's up to 34 times more efficient.

Put another way, Flash Player using Stage Video can effortlessly play beautiful 1080p HD video with just 1 to 15 percent CPU usage on a common Mac or Windows computer...Many millions of additional PCs, from Netbooks to desktops, can now become slick HD home theaters on the Web.

CPU usage during video has been a particular sore spot with Flash, in particular with Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs lambasting Flash video as battery-sucking software. Stage Video, among other things, uses hardware acceleration to combine ("composite," in technical terms) video with other elements such as text or graphics--think subtitles, pop-up ads, and player controls. (Adobe already added hardware-assisted decoding of H.264 video in Flash Player 10.1.)

Web developers need to update their software to use the new Stage Video interface; Flash evangelist Lee Brimelow offers a tutorial for those interested in how to do so. Google already has for its Flash-based player at YouTube, Adobe said.

Speaking of hardware acceleration, Flash Player 10.2 also takes advantage of that ability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 for higher performance and smoother compositing. It also comes with the ability to show full-screen video on one monitor in a dual-monitor setup.

Flash faces a host of challenges beyond power consumption. Also on the list are a variety of competing Web standards in varying degrees of maturity and the fact that Flash Player is a rarity on mobile phones.

The Flash Player 10.2 plug-in can be downloaded from Adobe's download site, but things are somewhat different for users of Google's Chrome browser. Google builds Flash Player directly into Chrome and it issued a new stable version 9.0.597.94 and developer version 10.0.648.45 with Flash Player 10.2; the new versions download automatically and are installed upon restarting the browser.



Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20031167-264.html#ixzz1DawuPTJZ

Google Adds Priority Inbox To Mobile Gmail

Gmail users who rely on the Priority Inbox feature to sort their e-mail will now find the same feature available through their mobile devices.

Launched in August, Priority Inbox was designed to help clear the clutter of your inbox by filtering out e-mail deemed less important. Initially available on the standard Gmail Web site and via the Gmail Android app, the feature has just made its debut on the mobile Web version of Gmail accessible through any portable device.

Priority Inbox filters the e-mail from your regular inbox into one of three categories: Important and unread, Starred, and Everything. You start out by indicating which e-mails you consider important and which ones less so.

Over time, the feature is supposed to learn how to best sort your messages, but of course, you can steer it back in the right direction if it guesses wrong. Your regular inbox doesn't go away, so you can always access the full load of messages to make sure you don't miss any.

According to Google's blog, once you set up Priority Inbox on the standard Gmail Web site, the feature will pop up in its mobile counterpart. Specifically, Google says that Priority Inbox will work in most mobile browsers that support HTML5, including those on devices running Android 1.5 or higher and Apple's iOS3 or higher.



Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20030983-93.html#ixzz1DPErgb2Z