Software & Apps - Page 110

Mozilla has a detailed new development model for Firefox, with the current draft saying Firefox 5 will make its way to fans on June 21, 2011 and Firefox 6 not that long after on August 18, 2011. These dates may well change but right now this is what Mozilla is hoping for. All changes to the Firefox source code are initially integrated in the mozilla-central Mercurial repository.

At scheduled intervals (usually 6 weeks) the changes are then imported from mozilla-central to one of three other channels. In addition to mozilla-central there will also be firefox-experimental, firefox-beta and Firefox (release) with each one backed by its own Mercurial repository. The names below are placeholders and Mozilla may still change them:

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The firefox-experimental channel will receive new features at regular intervals, but some of them have the option of being disabled if they look like they require more work. The beta channel will receive new features that are set to be included in the Firefox release. New features are never directly added to the firefox-experimental or firefox-beta channels. Each stage of the process lasts for 6 weeks but because of the development overlap, we should see new versions every 6 to 12 weeks.

Mozilla announced last month that Firefox 4, Firefox 5, Firefox 6 and Firefox 7 would all ship in 2011, it may sound insane but with this new schedule we might just see that happen.

The welcome screen for Windows 8 has been leaked (and confirmed as real). The below screen show is the current Windows 8 Welcome Screen and is visibly based on the Windows Phone 7 lock screen - which is impressive in itself.

Amazon's Appstore was unveiled last week but no one seemed to notice the Test Drive feature that could now become the biggest part of the new Appstore. Test Drive allows US customers to try Android-based apps before you buy them on Amazon.com - pretty great, huh?

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 is off and running with 2.35 million downloads in its first 24 hours. The non-beta version was released this past Monday at 9PM PST, so for that first day people were acquiring IE9 at a rate of about 27 downloads per second. That's around twice the downloads of the IE9 Beta, and a whopping four times the amount of downloads for the release candidate.

Microsoft just released the "final" version of Internet Explorer 9, the Browser That Started It All. Sort of.

After three months in beta testing, WinRAR 4.00 is fully-baked and ready for consumption. It is now available to download for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The biggest improvement over the previous WinRAR versions is the decompression, which is now 30-percent faster depending on the file format used.

Apple has let the Lion out of its den and out to developers around the world. Apple's OS X 10.7 "Lion" is Apple's next-gen personal computer operating system and a preview build has been released to developers, it is much different to the current Snow Leopard in that it merges bits of iOS into the new operating system.

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 users rejoice! Service Pack 1 is now available for both flavors of Windows and is available via Windows Update any hour now as Microsoft are rolling it out now.

A father has decided to step up to the mantle of being the best dad ever and has created a playable Angry Birds birthday cake. His YouTube description for the video says: It's become a family tradition that I make increasingly ridiculous birthday cakes for my kids each year. So with my little boy Ben turning 6-years-old over the weekend, and appreciating his love of Angry Birds, I thought I'd have a shot a making him a playable Angry Birds birthday cake with working catapult and iced birds as ammunition.

Google's new Chrome beta is out and includes a variety of speed-boosts and features. JavaScript engine V8 runs compute-intensive JavaScript applications much faster than previous iterations of Google's web browser. This beta release sees a jump of 66-percent over the current stable release when tested under V8 Benchmarker suite.

Microsoft have reportedly hit the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) milestone of Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. The build reportedly went final on January 18. Warez group WZ ZUKO has supposedly been distributing this build to various torrent sites.

Want a sneak peak at the new Android Music app from the upcoming 3.0 update? Take a peek below for a nice little video showing off the various features of the player.

Over the last few years, the ability to record HD video on a DSLR has gone from non-existent to a very common feature. The video quality DSLR cameras are capable of mean that a lot of video pros are using the cameras to record video. Many of those people are finding that it's hard to make smooth zoom transitions using the manual zoom lenses on most DSLR cameras.

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Nikon filed a patent applicant back on June 3 2009 that surfaced last week that outlines a cool new lens that videographers and still shooters will really like for their DSLR cameras. The lens has a method to allow for manual focus and to allow for automatic focus on one lens. The automatic zoom would be used for smoothly zooming in on the subject when making video.

The manual focus option could be used when taking still photos where speed is more important than zooming smoothly. The lens would be controlled manually by twisting the lens like any DSLR user is familiar with and by hitting a button on the back of the camera body for automatic zoom. At this time, there is no word on when the lens will surface for people to purchase.