Firefox 4 Beta 2, based on the Gecko 2.0 Web platform, has just been released for consumption. Windows, Mac and Linux versions are all available in a total of 24 languages. Beta 2 brings a new look to Firefox 4 (with tabs now on top by default), a new “App Tab” feature, and features various performance improvements over the previous beta. Mozilla warns that some add-ons may not be compatible with this version of Firefox.
Microsoft said on Thursday that it's currently readying an Internet Explorer 9 public beta for September.
According to sources familiar with Microsoft's plans the software giant was originally targeting late August for the public beta but this date slipped slightly. Although Microsoft officials didn't confirm the exact date for the public beta, Neowin believes this will be September 2.
Microsoft originally unveiled Internet Explorer 9 at PDC 2009. IE 9 will take advantage of the power of the GPU for all page rendering and developers can exploit this using CSS, DHTML andjavascript. A new JS engine (codenamed Chakra) will also be built into Internet Explorer 9 with greater interoperability and standards support all round. Features such as rounded corner CSS support will be built in. In January, Neowin revealed that Microsoft is planning to enhance tabbed browsing in IE9. According to a software patent, the Quick Tabs feature in Internet Explorer is likely to be enhanced with better functionality and greater tab management options.
Microsoft is also planning broader support for HTML5 in Internet Explorer 9 through its new script engine. Microsoft recently performed W3C Web Standards tests on IE9, including HTML5, SVG 1.1 2nd edition, CSS3 media queries, CSS3 borders & backgrounds, CSS3 selectors, DOM level 3 core, DOM level 3 events and DOM level 2 style. Microsoft, with the help of W3C, performed a total of 192 tests on a variety of browsers. Internet Explorer 9 scored 100% in all eight tests, while every other browser, except Firefox in DOM level 2 style tests, didn't score perfect in any of the test categories.
The screenshots also reveal a download manager for pausing and canceling downloads, a new icon for Internet Explorer 9 and what appears to be greater security control of add-ons. The new features are an early look at what features Microsoft is planning for the first beta of Internet Explorer 9. The screenshots do not reveal any UI changes apart from what appears to be a new icon. Neowin has independently verified the screenshots and we can confirm these are genuine and from a build distributed to internal and external partners.
Yogi Bear is directed by former visual effects supervisor Eric Brevig, who directed the awful 3D Journey to the Center of the Earth previously. The script was co-written by Brad Copeland (Wild Hogs, "My Name Is Earl"), Joshua Sternin and Jeffrey Ventimilia (both of Surviving Christmas, Tooth Fairy). Warner Bros is bringing this hybrid Yogi Bear movie to theaters in 3D starting on December 17th this holiday season.
Fudzilla claims that NVIDIA has a stock of fully-functional GF104 GPUs ready to replace the GTX 470, which is based on the GF100 chip. The recently released GTX 460 has one of its eight shading multiprocessors disabled, meaning it has 336 CUDA cores out of a possible 384. The GTX 470, on the other hand, is a scaled down version of the GTX 480, with one of its SMs similarly disabled. By replacing that with the re-engineered GF104, the GTX 475 (or whatever they end up calling it) will bring more performance while cutting down on the heat, noise, and power consumption characteristic of the first-generation Fermi parts.
Intel Corporation today announced an important advance in the quest to use light beams to replace the use of electrons to carry data in and around computers.
This morning, Apple unveiled an upgrade of their workstation Mac Pro series. Here are some more detailed specs as provided by Apple:
The new quad-core Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of
US$2,499, includes:
* one 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon W3530 processor with 8MB
of fully-shared L3 cache
* 3GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 16GB
* ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
* two Mini DisplayPorts and one DVI (dual-link) port
(adapters sold separately)
* 1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm
* 18x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+/-R
DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW)
* four PCI Express 2.0 slots
* five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire 800 ports
* AirPort Extreme 802.11n
* Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
* Apple Keyboard with numerical keypad and Magic Mouse
The new 8-core Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of
$3,499, includes:
* two 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5620 processors with 12MB
of fully-shared L3 cache per processor
* 6GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 32GB
* ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
* two Mini DisplayPorts and one DVI (dual-link) port
(adapters sold separately)
* 1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm
* 18x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+/-R
DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW)
* four PCI Express 2.0 slots
* five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire 800 ports
* AirPort Extreme 802.11n
* Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
* Apple Keyboard with numerical keypad and Magic Mouse
The new 21.5-inch 3.06 GHz Intel Core i3 iMac, for a suggested
retail price of $1,199 (US), includes:
* 21.5-inch 1920 x 1080 LED-backlit display;
* 3.06 GHz Intel Core i3 processor with 4MB shared L3 cache;
* 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM expandable to 16GB;
* ATI Radeon HD 4670 discrete graphics with 256MB GDDR3 SDRAM;
* 500GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
* slot-load 8x SuperDrive® with double-layer support
(DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
* Mini DisplayPort for audio and video output (adapters sold
separately);
* AirPort Extreme® 802.11n wireless networking
& Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
* iSight® video camera;
* Gigabit Ethernet;
* four USB 2.0 ports;
* one SDXC SD card slot;
* one FireWire® 800 port;
* built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
* Wireless Apple Keyboard, Magic Mouse.
The new 27-inch 3.2 GHz Intel Core i3 iMac, for a suggested
retail price of $1,699 (US), includes:
* 27-inch 2560 x 1440 LED-backlit display;
* 3.20 GHz Intel Core i3 processor with 4MB shared L3 cache;
* 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM expandable to 16GB;
* ATI Radeon HD 5670 discrete graphics with 512MB GDDR3;
* 1TB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
* slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support
(DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
* Mini DisplayPort for audio and video input and output
(adapters sold separately);
* AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking &
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
* iSight video camera;
* Gigabit Ethernet;
* four USB 2.0 ports;
* one FireWire 800 port;
* one SDXC SD card slot;
* built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
* Wireless Apple Keyboard, Magic Mouse.
Apple is set to release the iPhone 4 this Friday in 17 more countries including Canada. The iPhone 4 will be available in Canada and other parts of the world unlocked for use with any carrier. Customers will be able to walk into any Apple Store on Friday and pick up an unlocked, contract-free iPhone 4 and be able to shop around from the big three carriers and select which plan suits their needs. Rogers, Telus and Bell will all be selling the iPhone 4 this Friday, including Micro-SIM cards for $5 to $10 each, so users will be able to use pre-paid contracts with their device as well. A 16GB iPhone 4 will be $659 and the iPhone 4 32GB will be $759.
HardOCP's ideo card evaluation features a shootout between a GeForce GTX 460 SLI set-up and a range of AMD GPUs. Here's a taster:
The GeForce GTX 460 SLI setup is certainly a great performer. In terms of AMD's DX11 product lineup, the GeForce GTX 460 SLI option lands somewhere between the Radeon HD 5870 and the dual GPU Radeon HD 5970. The Radeon HD 5970 is faster, but much more expensive, and the Radeon HD 5870 is a slower performer but less expensive.
When compared to performance of single high-end video cards from AMD, the value of the GeForce GTX 460 SLI option loses some of its luster. The AMD Radeon HD 5000 video cards can be doubled-up as well, which will deliver a better performance than the GTX 460 SLI ever will.
So, where does the GTX 460 SLI solution hold solid value? For those of you looking to upgrade to SLI later, the GeForce GTX SLI holds a very solid value. For those of you looking to go with an NVIDIA product, it holds a tremendously solid value.
For gamers looking to get into multi-monitor gaming, the Radeon HD 5850 may be a better overall value than the GeForce GTX 460 SLI. Each video card costs only about $30 more than the Galaxy Super OC GeForce GTX 460 cards we used for this evaluation, but the 5850 will support Eyefinity multi-display gaming right out of the box, without having to buy a second video card.
Yahoo! News is reporting that the FCC announced the practice of unlocking a cell phone is legitimate under fair-use rules and therefore legal.
This weekend has seen a flurry of activity about digital rights, but the biggest news dropped Monday morning, when the FCC announced that it had made the controversial practice of 'jailbreaking' your iPhone - or any other cell phone - legal.
While technically illegal, no one has been sued or prosecuted for the practice. (Apple does seriously frown on the practice, and jailbreaking your phone will still void your warranty.) It's estimated that more than a million iPhone owners have jailbroken their handsets.
Apple fought hard against the legalization, arguing that jailbreaking was a form of copyright violation. The FCC disagreed, saying that jailbreaking merely enhanced the inter-operability of the phone, and was thus legitimate under fair-use rules.
This law makes it legal for you to jailbreak your phone but apple still has the right to revoke the warranty if you jailbreak it on the basis that the pnly reason to do this is to use it for illegal activities. I know that this is not comlpetely true but they have the power to state that it does because of the warranty that they choose to put in place. The only major change that this makes is that now the people making the software are not in a legal grey area and apple has no reason to send out updates trying to stop jailbreaking.
Priest is an adaptation of the TokyoPop manga created by Hyung Min-woo. It fuses the western genre with supernatural horror, gun fu, and dark fantasy themes and is notable for its unusual, angular art style. ScreenGems is making a big bet and has scheduled Priest for release on May 13th, 2011 (in 3D).
AMD/ATI has just released ATI Catalyst 10.7 drivers for
Windows 7, Vista, XP and Linux. The most notable change on the software
front is support for WebGL, which is the industry standard for
implementing 3D graphics in a web browser. With ATI including the
OpenGL ES 2.0 driver in the new 10.7 release, developers have an easier
means to create 3D internet applications without the need for
additional plug-ins. This will allow for the creation of easily
rendered 3D content for open-source browsers, such as Google, Firefox,
and Opera. Along with the OpenGL driver the new release also includes
improvements for Eyefinity, CrossFireX and even support for Ubuntu
10.04.
Captain Jack sits on a screen and rambles endlessly about his next adventure, and then promises everyone watching Bloody Marys. Bloody Marys all around!
Do you have an iPhone 3G? Me, too. Have you updated it to iOS 4 yet? If the veins are popping out of your neck and your skin is turning green, you probably have. If your iPhone 3G hasn't been updated to iOS 4 yet, then do your iPhone, yourself, and your sanity a favor: DON'T UPDATE YOUR iPHONE 3G TO iOS 4!
Apple's support forums are buzzing like an angry hornet's nest on reports that iOS 4 has all but crippled users' iPhone 3Gs. By far the most-reported problem is generalized slowness; iOS 4 runs so slowly on many people's iPhone 3Gs that the phones are almost unusable.