Latest news

Mozilla has confirmed that the next major re-haul of the Firefox browser, version 4.0, will likely be delayed into early 2011. The browser was originally slated for a Q3 2010 release.

Anticipated 3.6 and 3.7 updates will include security and stability enhancements, including separate processes for each tab, but will not include too many drastic changes. Firefox 4 on the other hand, will be given "Windows 7 look and feel," says TGDaily.

Analysts say the delay is good news for Microsoft whose Internet Explorer 8 has been stealing back some market share since the release of Windows 7. By most estimates, IE still controls about 65 percent of the entire browser market with FF in second at around 23 percent.

The Nexus One Android smartphone seems to be all but confirmed today after Google began sending out invites for a press gathering on January 5th.

The event will be focused on the Android operating system, and there is still a chance that the release could be NOT for the Nexus One, but those chances seem pretty slim, at best.

The purported smartphone will have the following specs (Pic via AndroidSpin):

Karsten Nohl of Germany, an engineer and encryption expert, announced at the Chaos Communication Congress this week that he had broken the 64-bit A5/1 encryption algorithm currently used to secure and encrypt GSM phone calls made in most of the world's countries.

If the algorithms are cracked, then outsiders could theoretically listen in on any phone conversation of their choosing, which would lead to extreme lapses in security and privacy. Nohl says: “This shows that existing G.S.M. security is inadequate. We are trying to push operators to adopt better security measures for mobile phone calls.”

The GSM Association, the group behind the algorithms, has called Nohl's "hacking" illegal. “This is theoretically possible but practically unlikely,” added Claire Cranton, an association spokeswoman, via NYT. “What he is doing would be illegal in Britain and the United States. To do this while supposedly being concerned about privacy is beyond me.”

User CollinE of the BenHeck forums has created an Xbox 360 laptop, and is currently selling it on eBay where it has a high bid of $1000 USD, so far.

The specs of the console are:

* 

17" widescreen LCD with 1280 x 768 resolution
* 20GB hard drive
* Ethernet port and cable
* Three USB ports
* Official 64MB memory card
* Xbox 360 wireless controller
* Xbox 360 headset
* Power supply
* Dimensions - 16.75" x 11" x 3.5"

While the laptop may be gigantic, it still beats the alternative, dragging your 360 console and TV around wherever you go (if you aren't going to a place with a TV), so take the good with the bad.

Original post here: collinE's 360 lappy finally finished! (now on eBay)

Auction here: eBay

Kotaku, citing Impress, is reporting today that Sony is considering not using the Cell architecture for the PlayStation 4, and instead moving to a multi-core CPU, one that will be easier to develop for than the Cell.

Sony has repeatedly said the PS3 will have a ten year life span but it's interesting to see that the company already has the PS4 on its mind.

The source says the first alternative considered was an architecture based on the "Cell and Intel's Larrabee," which then moved to a "a modified version of the Synergistic Processor Unit," but both of those appear to have been abandoned.

We will keep you updated.

According to an Amazon, Kindle e-books outsold physical books for Christmas 2009, a milestone.

"On Christmas Day, for the first time ever, customers purchased more Kindle books than physical books," reads the press release.

MSNBC brings up some good points however, as to why the press release may be more hype than substance:

* It's Christmas, so all of the Kindles that have been delivered over the past few weeks as gifts are finally meeting their owners. They're empty. They're hungry.
* There aren't any shipments going out on Christmas, so it doesn't make sense to place an order for a physical item.
* Amazon has been promoting the Kindle on its landing page for more than two years. This day was going to come eventually.

Regardless, it is a nice milestone for the Kindle device and all e-readers in general, which should continue to experience exponential growth over the next few quarters.

Earlier today, AT&T halted online sales of the iPhone in New York City, prompting giant media scrutiny which almost unanimously agreed that the carrier was trying to halt extra traffic to their already overworked networks. NYC is the most populous iPhone ownership city in the United States.

The carrier has still not explained the halting of the sales, but has quietly returned the phone to its website.

Recently, AT&T said that about 3 percent of its users account for just under 50 percent of all data use, and pointed to iPhone users without needing to say the name of the popular device.

When asked about the brief suspension all the carrier said was: "We periodically modify our promotion and distribution channels."

The Consumerist quoted CSRs as saying that "New York is not ready for the iPhone, you don't have enough towers to handle the phone." Other CSRs were quoted as saying that NYC had depleted its stock of available iPhones online. Clearly, they have not.

Palm has updated their webOS firmware today, to version 1.3.5, rolling out the update to Pre and Pixi users.

The update removes the oft-criticized restriction on application storage space allowing for almost an unlimited number of apps to be installed now. The Palm App Catalog has also been updated to allow for background downloading and simultaneous downloads as well.

More notably, battery power management has been updated for whenever the phone is in "areas of poor wireless network coverage," conserving more battery life.

The full list for the Pre is available here: Firmware 1.3.5

The full list for the Pixi is available here: Firmware 1.3.5

The IBTimes, a small UK tech site, is reporting today that the Google Chrome OS netbook has had its specs leaked, however it may just be another rumor based on some facts and a probability game.

According to the site, the highly anticipated (but unofficial) netbook will include the following specs (via Crunch):

* NVIDIA Tegra platform with ARM CPU
* 10.1-inch TFT HD-ready multi-touch display
* 64GB solid state drive
* 2GB of RAM
* Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, Ethernet, USB ports, webcam, card reader
* Subsidized at less than $300, sold directly to consumers by Google

The RAM, the processor and the standard goodies (3G, Wi-Fi, etc) are more than likely but the pricing, the SSD and the screen are still likely rumor, especially since there is no chance that a multi-touch display could sell for under $300, unless the wireless carrier subsidy is very heavy.

Best Buy has started a promotion this week that will offer a free $50 gift card with the purchase of an Xbox 360 and an additional 360 Wireless Controller. The promotion is for the Elite Winter Bundle.

Amazon has slashed the price of the Xbox 360 Arcade to $180, a $20 price cut.

Additionally, a Xbox Live 12-Month Gold Card was dropped to $40, down from $50.

Jeremiah Gilliam of the Bronx has been arrested today after police officers found dozens of laptops, GPS devices and video game consoles in his apartment. How did the cops find him? Because he tried playing one of the stolen Xbox 360s online and signed in using the Xbox Live account saved on the system.

The youth whose Xbox had been stolen, was playing online at a friend's house and saw his own Xbox Live name sign in, prompting the family to call the police who then traced the IP address back to the address where Gilliam was staying.

The criminal was under investigation already for 13 robberies, and police suspect he broke into as many as 200 cars and homes in Westchester County.

"On the day of the burglary, the victim used another Xbox and saw his system was already online," said one of the arresting officers. "At the house, we found Xboxes, PlayStations, GPS units, laptops -- a total of 53 items, including stolen credit cards."

It appears that giant retailer Wal-Mart’s aggressive Blu-ray sales over the last quarter has paid off, with the company now about tied with Best Buy for BD market share.

The numbers, via the NPD Group, show that Wal-Mart now commands 30 percent market share of Blu-ray disc sales, about even with Best Buy at 35 percent. In May, Wal-Mart had around 20 percent while Best Buy had an impressive 45 percent.

Despite usually having better prices than BB, Amazon and Target remained in third and fourth place, with about 15 percent and 10 percent respectively.

Overall, consumer spending on BD movies was up 83 percent year-on-year, and retail chains are actively fighting for market share.

“We’re seeing it as more of a horse race with Blu-ray,” adds Russ Crupnick, senior entertainment industry analyst for NPD, via VB. “I think Walmart has made a strong effort over the past year, being aggressive with price. They are very specifically targeting an untapped market. They are saying this isn’t just a high-tech product. It’s something that women and families can enjoy.”

Francis "Frank" Janosko, a Massachusetts prison inmate, has been given an extra 18-month sentence for hacking a prison computer while he was in jail. The computer had been provided to inmates to help them with legal research for appeals.

Janosko hacked the system and stole personal data on 1100 prison employees, including Social Security Numbers and home addresses.

ComputerWorld explains that the PC used was a "thin client computer that simply connected to another machine on the network and did not store any data itself. The only program it was supposed to run was the prison's legal research application."

Prosecutors say the inmate "exploited an idiosyncrasy in the legal research software" which allowed him to access other programs as well as send emails and even download videos.

China Central Television (CCTV) released a program this week called "Confession of a Murderer -- Focus on Pornography and Violence in Online Games," which for the most part blames murder, drug addiction and even teen pregnancy on violent online video games.

The report goes as far as to say that up to 80 percent of the violent criminals in a particular prison were there because of crimes committed in part because of their addictions to online games.

Other recent reports from the CCTV have blamed social-networking sites and video games for lower test grades.

Chinese authorities have been cracking down on online gaming for months now, as well as pornography. The fight hit a boiling point when World of Warcraft was taken down for three months when the developer and the government could not come to an agreement.

As for the drug addiction aspect, the CCTV showed a program in which many teenagers became addicted to cough medicine and other harder drugs such as meth, as a way to keep up their energy to play online games all night, sometimes for 48 hours at a time.

According to Jay Sullivan of Mozilla, mobile Firefox, dubbed Fennec will be available "within days" for the Nokia N900 and later for a wider variety of handsets.

The browser is currently in final testing and should be available by the end of the year.

Most interestingly, Sullivan says the mobile browser will synchronize with its desktop counterpart and any pages open on a user's desktop will open in the mobile version as well.

"At the end of the working day you can walk away from your computer and keep on going on your phone," says Sullivan. "It encrypts all of the information and sends it back through the cloud between your desktop and mobile."

Sullivan says the group is working on a WinMo and Android version as well but that iPhone users will likely never get the browser. "Apple is very restrictive," he added. "As it's a pretty closed platform we don't see that happening soon."