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[Submitted by Christo [PCD]]

Mozilla's open source browser experienced a healthy boost in popularity last week on the back of a new release and security concerns about Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

On Friday the Mozilla Foundation released version 3.6 of the popular open source browser and by Monday morning almost 12 million copies of the latest version had been downloaded. At the time of writing on Monday morning, 11 921 680 copies of Firefox 3.6 had been downloaded according to the Firefox download-tracking site. An average of around 42 downloads per second were being recorded on Monday morning.

The majority of downloads were from the US where close to 2.5 million copies had been downloaded over the weekend. This was followed by Germany (1.5 million copies), Brazil (640 000), France (580 000) and Japan (414 000). South Africa had recorded just over 18 000 copies downloaded over the weekend. In comparison Morocco recorded in excess of 31 000 downloads in the same period. South Africa was listed as number 55 in the total number of downloads by country.

Firefox 3.6 is a significant upgrade for web users and includes a number of new features including personas for customising Firefox's appearance, many new HTML5 features including geolocation, CSS gradients, native video and the new Web Open Font Format for including fonts in web designs.

Extra boost

While most of the downloads of Firefox 3.6 are likely to be done by existing Firefox users, the browser also received a additional boost in the past week when new security flaws were revealed in opponent Internet Explorer. The security risks in IE prompted the German government to recommend web users adopt another browser to protect themselves when online.

The result was a significant increase in downloads of alternative browsers, most particularly Firefox. According to the Sydney Morning Herald Mozilla said that it had seen an increase of more than 300 000 downloads of its browser in Germany over a four-day period following the warning. Norway-based Opera also reported an increase in downloads following the warning.

Microsoft said at the time that the flaws in IE were insignificant but they did issue a security update for IE on Thursday last week.

SOURCE: MyBroadband.co.za News



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Google’s Nexus One phone has gained kudos for its vivid OLED screen and slim design. But the lack of multitouch support for its gorgeous display has left some users frustrated.

Now there’s a hack for it. A developer has modified the Android 2.1 operating system running on the Nexus One to enable multitouch for the device. Though it enables the feature for the Nexus One browser, for now, it is likely to soon become a part of other applications, such as maps.

Earlier this month, Google launched Nexus One as the first smartphone that would be sold by the search company itself, rather than a manufacturing or carrier partner. The Nexus One is designed by HTC and is currently available on T-Mobile’s network for $180 with a two-year contract with T-Mobile. An unsubsidized version of the phone costs $530.

But the lack of multitouch on the Nexus One has left many users puzzled. Nexus One has a touchscreen but users can only tap on it with one finger. So none of the two-finger pinch-and-zoom gestures that are popular among iPhone users are available. Google has said it will consider adding the feature in future updates.

The Android community, though, isn’t holding its breath. Steve Kondik, a developer who goes under the nickname Cyanogen, has offered a few files and instructions on code to add multitouch to the device.

“You will initially lose your bookmarks and browser settings by doing this,” he warns. Hacking the phone could also void its warranty.

But as this video shows, getting multitouch in the Nexus One browser could just be worth it.

SOURCE: Wired.com




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Apple and Google, once the friendliest of Silicon Valley neighbours, have set themselves on a collision course.

While Google was driving its tanks into Apple retail territory this week with its new smartphone, Steve Jobs quietly bought a mobile advertising company, potentially pitching the group that he founded into the online ad sales business.

Google’s Nexus One “superphone” is a direct competitor to Apple’s iPhone and, according to some, a worthy rival. In buying Quattro Wireless for a reported $275 million (£170 million), Apple is following Google’s acquisition of AdMob, a mobile advertising network that competed with Quattro, for $750 million.

The ground they are both trying to conquer is the mobile internet; both see it as essential to growth. Analysts suggest that new internet connections — and web page views and advertising clicks — are much more likely to come from the 4 billion mobile users worldwide than the 1 billion PC users.

The key to that growth is likely to be smartphones, which are set to dominate the way in which we access the web on the move. In the US, for example, smartphone adoption grew from 11 per cent of the mobile market at the end of 2008 to 17 per cent at the end of 2009, according to Forrester Research. Both technology powerhouses want as much control over this new gateway as possible as they move beyond their traditional markets. Rob Enderle, technology analyst of the Enderle Group, the consultancy, said: “I think Google might be more focused on Apple than Microsoft.”

Apple is likely to use Quattro to make the iPhone platform still more attractive to the thousands of software developers who have turned its App Store into such a success. If Apple can offer a way to sell ads in the applications, it can help those developers make more money. Apple is keenly aware that the iPhone’s App Store is a big selling point for consumers; just as Google was launching the Nexus One, Apple put out a press release declaring that more than 3 billion applications had been downloaded for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. Mr Jobs said: “We see no signs of the competition catching up any time soon.”

The iPhone is a goldmine, with more than 30 million handsets sold in the past two and a half years. And demand is still growing, thanks to international launches and carefully planned hardware updates. The device helped to boost Apple’s annual revenue from $24 billion in the 2007 financial year to $36.5 billion in its most recent financial year, which ended in September.

Google’s revenues have also soared, from $1.5 billion in 2003 to more than $22 billion last year, the vast bulk of the money coming from the internet search ad business. Google wants AdMob to help it to dominate mobile search advertising similarly.

But it also wants its Android operating system for mobiles to be used by as many devices as possible. So it has taken the logical step of selling its own phone.

Google is looking to become a big-volume retailer, too, through its phone webstore. At the launch of the Nexus One this week, it said the smartphone was simply the first of many Android handsets that it planned to sell directly online to the public. Even if the Nexus is not an “iPhone killer”, as some had expected before its launch, many see the Android operating system as the only true rival to the dominance of the iPhone.

The Google/Apple collision has been coming for more than a year. It was the potential clash over Google’s increasing mobile ambitions that led last August to the resignation of Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, from the Apple board.

The move came three days after the US Federal Communications Commission, the US industry regulator, said it was looking into why Apple rejected a Google software application for the iPhone. Mr Jobs cited Google’s expansion into “Apple’s core businesses” as the main reason for the departure.

In the past, the two companies have been close, with Apple board members Bill Campbell and Al Gore, the former US Vice-President, serving as advisers to Google in its early days.

Now Google’s acquisition of AdMob is mired in a regulatory review, though it is expected to be approved. This may explain why Google went out of its way to welcome Apple’s acquisition of Quattro. Paul Feng, Google’s group product manager, wrote that “investments and acquisitions” ... were “a sign that vigorous growth and competition will continue”. Analysts noted that Google’s warm response may have been motivated by a desire to persuade the authorities that the AdMob deal should go through.

Beyond the politics, both companies know there is much at stake. The business of placing ads on smartphone screens is small but growing fast. Advertisers spent just $416 million on mobile ads last year, compared with $22 billion on websites, according to eMarketer, the research firm. However, the mobile spend is expected to grow to $1.6 billion by 2013 as smartphones and other mobile computing devices become increasingly popular.

In hardware and in software, Google and Apple are set to slug it out.

SOURCE: Times Online



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Google’s Nexus One mobile phone may or may not prove to be that elusive “next iPhone”, but the timing of tomorrow’s expected announcement is certainly significant.

Just 24 hours later Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, will address the annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The best three years lie ahead, Mr Ballmer told The Times in a recent interview. The idea is that as fields such as television, computing, music, video, telephony, video gaming and photography mature their digital formats, fewer devices will be needed to store and play content.

Portable devices — the MP3 players, digital cameras and mobile phones of the mid-Noughties — have already merged to become today’s smartphones. At this year’s electronics show we can expect digital convergence to invade our living-rooms. Manufacturers are working on internet-capable television sets that can be switched from broadcast to internet catch-up services such as the BBC iPlayer as easily as changing channels. By the end of the decade, many experts predict, internet TV viewing will overtake broadcast viewing as the primary means of television consumption.

The jury is out on domestic 3D TV, which requires special glasses as well as special sets. It may be revolutionary — but having just replaced their old TV with a flat-screen, consumers may not be keen to fork out for a 3D set.

Great things are expected in eBooks. Electronic publishing and e-ink reached the mainstream last year. Now there is a race to produce a colour eBook device with go-anywhere wireless and maybe internet, video or games-playing ability.

The big story of last year, however, was the netbook, and we will see smaller, lighter, and more powerful models at the show. The netbook’s biggest competitor is the smartphone. This year, experts say, smartphone sales will overtake sales of traditional mobiles.

SOURCE: Times Online

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