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Microsoft has finally released their Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate, meaning a final launch is coming in the near future.

The completely overhauled IE9 saw its first beta in September 2010, and includes a full revamp of the user interface, hardware acceleration, and updated compatibility for HTML5.

Microsoft's new RC is ready-to-ship code, and there are only a few bugs expected to be left.

From the betas, the RC offers improved JavaScript and includes all the 2,000 changes made since the first beta.

As of the RC, Microsoft claims their IE9 JavaScript engine is the fastest of all current browsers (based on SunSpider benchmarks).

Security is also a big factor in the browser, with an improved ActiveX filter and SmartScreen malware protection in the download manager.

RC for those interested: http://windows.microsoft.com/ie9

According to multiple sources, Nokia is very close to announcing a partnership with Microsoft that will have Windows Phone 7 added to Nokia smartphones.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop apparently had talks with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Google's former CEO Eric Schmidt but chose WP7 over Android.

Additionally, Nokia has already pulled funds and time from MeeGo (its Symbian successor), likely leaving it to Intel.

Elop, hired in September to turn the company around, will unveil the strategy tomorrow at an event in London.

Nokia has a tiny presence in the United States, and is quickly losing its lead in the smartphone market to Android and Apple.

HTC has invested $40 million in cloud video gaming service OnLive, in an effort to strengthen gaming capabilities on smartphones (and likely tablets).

The Taiwanese company has quickly become a very profitable smartphone maker, bringing in $500 million profit for the last quarter, alone, on revenue of $3.6 billion.

HTC was the phone maker behind the first-ever Android device, the T-Mobile G1 and has increased its lineup significantly since.

CEO Peter Chou said earlier this year it wants to use its $2.5 billion it has in cash to boost "strategic investments" in digital content, and it appears, cloud-computing.

Earlier in the week, HTC invested in Saffron Digital, a mobile and Web-based media company.

More details of the OnLive investment are upcoming at the MWC next week.

According to a new report, bankrupt movie rental company Blockbuster will put itself up for sale, following a disagreement with its creditors.

The report claims that a bidder would likely offer $300 million, as well as assuming all debt and leases.

Blockbuster went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year in an effort to restructure debt and give it a chance to reemerge later. By doing so, the company has kept 3300 stores open but has almost wiped out shareholders and junior bondholders. The company had $1 billion in debt when it filed for bankruptcy.

The leading contender to win Blockbuster in auction is investor Carl Icahn and a consortium led by Monarch Alternative Capital, a large hedge fund. The group and Icahn own about 80 percent of Blockbuster's senior notes and gave Blockbuster $125 million to help fuel the turnaround.

Apparently, the company had poor holiday sales and therefore expects it will need more money. The hedge fund is not willing to pay more than the $125 million invested.

The oft-rumored Facebook phones are a reality, despite the social networking giant's repeated denials of their existence.

INQ Mobile has shown off two new phones that are "the result of close collaboration with Facebook."

The first device, the Cloud Touch, will have a 3.5-inch touchscreen, run Android 2.2 Froyo, a 5MP camera and feature a weak 600MHz processor. Although it is hopefully a typo, the press release says the device will only have 4MB of memory.

Second is the Cloud Q, which has a 2.6-inch touchscreen, full QWERTY, and runs Android 2.2. There were no other specs listed.

INQ says each phone will have a dedicated Spotify button, which also doubles as the music player.

Both will only be available in the UK via The Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy.

Explains the press release:

Today, INQ Mobile delivered an all-new Facebook mobile experience with two new Android devices, the INQ Cloud Touch and INQ Cloud Q. Built for people worldwide who use Facebook as their primary means of communication, they deliver a fully live Facebook experience built around INQ’s Visual Media Feed.

Although Sony has not announced the price yet for their upcoming NGP handheld, a leak from GameStop seems to show the device coming in at $300.

Given the impressive specs of the console, the price doesnt seem too high, especially considering the failed PSPGo launched at $250.

At $300, the NGP will also only be $50 more than upcoming Nintendo 3DS, its direct rival.

The "release date" in the leaked photo is likely wrong, as Sony has said it expects to launch before the holidays this year.

For controls, the handheld adds dual micro-analog sticks, giving gamers a feature they begged for on the original PSP.

The device has a massive 5-inch multi-touch OLED screen with 960×544 resolution, a multi-touch panel on the back and will run on a quad-core ARM cortex processor.

Sony has added tilt-sensitive SIXAXIS controls, standard and front-side cameras, GPS, an electric compass, Wi-Fi and 3G support, and access to Android gaming.

AfterDawn is looking to expand it's services in the Nordic countries. We already have a strong presence in our home country, Finland, but we also have localized sites available in Swedish and Norwegian, with a Danish version under construction as well. AfterDawn.com launched Tom's Hardware Finland in August, 2010, and other Nordic countries will follow during the Spring 2011.

We are now looking for people interested in joining our team at AfterDawn.com, and working with translations and content for both AfterDawn and Tom's Hardware in Swedish, Danish and Norwegian.

Your work will include:

• translating English content (in-depth technology articles that can be 5-40 pages long) to your own native language
• writing news (i.e. not just translating from source material) in your native language on a regular / daily basis
• communicating with other members of the staff for coordination (via email, instant messengers and IRC)

• you’re a native speaker of one of the languages mentioned (no, good Google Translation skills don’t count :-)
• a person with good English language skills (English is the communication language between different AfterDawn teams -- and your news sources, translation materials, etc will all be in English -- but you don't need to produce content in English)
• a strong grasp on PC technology (and related terminology), including motherboards, graphics cards, CPUs and GPUs, mass storage etc.
• ability to write fluently and grammatically correct in the target language
• commitment to agreed deadlines, NDAs, content targets etc.
• ability to work remotely, using ICQ and email as primary means for communicating with other members of the staff
• basic HTML and image editing knowledge (nothing dramatic here, just the understanding of basic tags, image resizing, etc)
• prior experience with content management systems is a bonus, but not required (we use a custom CMS anyway)

• an opportunity to work with a launch of one of the leading technology sites in the world - in your native language
• flexibility in arranging your working hours and holidays -- this is not a nine-to-five-job
• .. and of course a salary based on your content output and an opportunity to a bonus, based on the performance of the site

HP, along with the TouchPad tablet, also unveiled two new WebOS-based smartphones today, the Pre 3 and the Veer (which will replace the Pixi).

The small Veer will have a 2.6-inch touchscreen display with 320x400 resolution, and includes a full slide-out QWERTY. The smartphone will run on an 800MHz Snapdragon processor, include a 5MP camera, built-in Flash, GPS, HSPA+, 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and 8GB storage.

Jon Rubenstein, head of HP's mobility group, says the Veer is "something that is powerful yet elegantly small."

Up next was the successor to the popular Pre (Plus) line, the Pre 3, which has a 3.6-inch touchscreen with 480x800 resolution.

The smartphone will run on a very powerful 1.4GHz Snapdragon processor, have 512MB DRAM, dual cameras with LED flash, 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, an accelerometer, proximity, and light sensors, and a compass.

Activision has announced this morning that the once popular 'Guitar Hero' franchise is finished, with the company "disbanding Activision Publishing's Guitar Hero business unit."

The developer has also stopped all development on the upcoming untitled 2011 Guitar Hero game.

Activision cited a continued decline in interest, across the board, for music genre games.

Although the franchise is now dead, the company did add that the brand would be "re-assessed" if need be, in the future, leaving the chance of a revival if demand returns.

Although unconfirmed, there is also a rumor that DJ Hero will be dropped by Activision, as well, likely after the release of DJ Hero 3D for the Nintendo 3DS.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball has subtly noted today that Apple may be moving to a 6-month release schedule for their popular iPad tablet.

In response to the unveiling of the HP TouchPad, Gruber says:

The software looks great, it really does, but:

Planned availability this summer.

Summer feels like a long time away. If my theory is right, they’re not only going to be months behind the iPad 2, but if they slip until late summer, they might bump up against the release of the iPad 3. And not only did they announce this with a distant ship date, they did it with no word on pricing.

Less than a month after the Board of Directors removed the CEO, AMD is seeing more management turnover, as the Chief Operating Officer and Senior VP of Corporate Strategy plan to step down.

COO Bob Rivet and VP Marty Seyer will stay with AMD to help with the transition, added the company, before leaving for "other opportunities."

CEO Dirk Meyer left in January after the Board brought up concerns about the company's lack of a concrete strategy for the burgeoning smartphone market.

Last year, Meyer raised eyebrows when he said the company would not invest in microprocessors for smartphones/tablets until the market grew more, despite the fact that the iPad is already eating into netbook and notebook demand.

AMD remains focused on chips for PCs, servers and video cards.

AT&T has said today that they are now offering free unlimited mobile-to-mobile in the U.S. to all customers who have a qualifying voice plan and unlimited text messaging.

Starting tomorrow, you can activate the "Mobile to Any Mobile" addition from www.att.com/anymobile.

Says the carrier:

Mobile to Any Mobile is an exciting offer that will keep our customers connected to the people they want to talk to, when they want to talk to them, without the hassle of watching minutes. We're giving customers more options and even better value. And when you include Rollover Minutes, a benefit available exclusively from AT&T that lets customers keep their unused minutes for all domestic calls, including to landline numbers, it's clear that AT&T offers the most flexibility in the industry.

HP has unveiled their first WebOS tablet today, the TouchPad, set for release in the summer.

The device will have a 9.7-inch display with 1024x768 resolution, run a dual-core 1.2Ghz Snapdragon processor, Beats Audio technology, stereo speakers, a 1.3MP front-side camera, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR.

HP's tablet will be available as 16GB or 32GB versions, weigh 1.6 pounds and feature a gyro, accelerometer, and compass and full Flash support, just like Android.

Says Jon Rubenstein, head of HP's mobility group (via PCM):

The TouchPad is all about you how you want to work, how you want to play, how you want to connect to things you value most. No one comes close to replicating our WebOS experience.

Sony's Kevin Butler, the character played by actor Jerry Lambert in PS3 commercials, accidentally retweeted the PlayStation 3 security key this morning, but has since taken it down.

The USB dongle ID generator key, which has been used by hackers to create signed firmwares and homebrew, was posted by @exiva originally.

Said Travis La Marr (@exiva):

[Edited for legal reasons]xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx Come at me, @TheKevinButler

Lemme guess... you sank my Battleship? RT @exiva: xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx Come at me, @TheKevinButler

We have just implemented a couple of relatively small, but quite significant changes to the site. Both changes aim to improve the overall page rendering speeds. In short - pages should hopefully load and display faster than before. The changes focus on the way advertisements are displayed on our pages, and on the way certain images are loaded. After the change most of the advertisements are loaded after the page has completed, which allows you to start viewing and reading faster than before.

Even though we have done our very best to test the changes on a variety of browsers and platforms, there is a strong possibility that problems occur on some combinations of browsers, operating systems and service providers. Should you run across any problems with, for example, advertisement placement (see this fabricated example), please let us know either by commenting this news article or by sending us feedback.

Another change that we've implemented has to do with loading images on some of the "image heavy" pages at AfterDawn. A good example of this is the Desktop pics forum thread. Slow loading pictures in posts or signatures can cause some forum pages to load very sluggishly. Now, after the recent change, all the images in the all posts are loaded "lazily", i.e. when they are scrolled to view. You'll see placeholder images such as this when you view posts. Those placeholders will be replaced by the actual images once your browser has loaded them.