Firefox Beta 3 Will Be Available on March 10

As noted, we didn’t see too much terribly different with Firefox 3.1 beta 2 over the currently shipping version, 3.0.6. A third beta was originally scheduled for an early January release, but lingering bugs prompted Mozilla to hold off on taking Firefox 3.1 beta 3 live. Left to bake a little while longer, Mozilla now appears ready to serve up the third beta, which it plans to do on March 10th at 2PM PST, according to the company’s updated release schdule.

“We’re going to wrap up beta 3 in the next week regardless of upvar [Javascript] status: a 4th beta will follow approximately 6 weeks after, as a vehicle for more testing of tracemonkey, video, places and other eagerly-awaited improvements as well as feedback from beta 3,” Mozilla’s VP of engineering Mike Shaver wrote in a blog post.

In other words, beta 3 might not be as fully cooked as Mozilla hoped, but at least some developers were feeling frustrated with the development process taking too long. Combined with 3.1′s expanded scope, the question has been raised whether it might make more sense to rename the final version 3.5 instead of 3.1, just as Firefox 1.1 was renamed to 1.5.

Stay tuned, as we’ll continue to follow the development of Mozilla’s browser, no matter what version number the company settles on.

RIM BlackBerry App World Opens for Devs

One of the things that makes the iPhone such a useful and popular device has nothing to do with the smartphone itself. Rather it has to do with the well-supported and vast number of apps that are available to add features and content to the iPhone.

The App Store is also making Apple a large amount of money with analysts predicting last year that the App Store could become a billion dollar business for Apple. With such high expectations and profitability, coming from the App Store it’s no surprise that other smartphone makers are trying to emulate the App Store’s success, just as they have tried to copy the success of the iPhone.

RIM has announced that its new application store for the Blackberry smartphone will be called BlackBerry App World and went live for developers on March 4. The new storefront is similar to the App Store and Google’s Android Market and allows developers to provide apps for Blackberry devices for free and apps that cost money.

EWeek reports that RIM has set up a sign-up page for Blackberry users that want to be notified when the App Store opens for the public. RIM issued a press release stating in part, “RIM plans to launch the application storefront in March 2009 and BlackBerry application developers can begin submitting their applications and content for inclusion in the storefront in December 2008. The storefront will allow developers to set their own prices for applications and developers will retain 80 percent of the revenue generated from their applications. RIM is working with PayPal, a leading global online payment service, to provide consumers with a convenient and trusted way to pay for applications within the new application storefront, right from their BlackBerry smartphone.”

RIM isn’t giving any sort of time frame for the public launch of the BlackBerry App World and it would be safe to assume the launch date will vary depending on how quickly developers provide apps for the storefront.

Microsoft Releases Windows Vista SP2 RC to the Masses

DailyTech reported a couple weeks back on Microsoft’s release of its Windows Vista and Server 2008 Service Pack 2′s Release Candidate. The SP2 RC was only available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers. Not wanting to leave the general public out of the testing process, Microsoft has at last announced the availability of the SP2 RC to the masses.

The service pack brings a number of changes and bug fixes to Windows Vista. It provides support for VIA’s new 64-bit CPU, Bluetooth v2.1, Windows Connect Now (WCN) Wi-Fi Configuration wireless functionality, faster Wi-Fi resume times after hibernation, and most significantly the ability to record Blu-ray.

It also features a number of software/connectivity improvements, including faster RSS feeds in the sidebar, Windows Search 4.0, the ability to configure the maximum number of TCP connections.

The service pack is also for Windows Server 2008, and offers the Hyper-V virtualization environment as a free fully integrated feature, with one free daughter OS with Windows Server 2008 Standard, four free licenses with Windows Server 2008 Enterprise, and an unlimited number of free licenses with Windows Server 2008 Datacenter. It also improves the management options in Windows Server 2008 and fixes some licensing key problems.

To top it off, the service pack bundles into a single package numerous bug fixes that Microsoft has been working on over the past several months and slowly releasing over Windows Update. Altogether, SP2 should help to make Windows Vista and Server 2008 more solid platforms, with many small improvements.

Testing is critical to the service packs success. Microsoft has been burned by past SP releases, which at times caused extreme errors like machine resetting. The company is looking to give this one a thorough public testing and resolve any issues before deeming it complete.

For those wanting to grab the new SP2 RC, you can download it here. You will have to uninstall the beta of SP2, if you have it currently installed.

‘Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children’ Complete Blu-Ray Release

Square Enix has released more information regarding the upcoming Blu-Ray movie release of *Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete*. This Blu-Ray release will feature 30 minutes of additional footage, a demo of the upcoming *Final Fantasy XII* game, and an English voice track. The disc also comes with the *FFVII* spin-off anime, *On The Way to a Smile Episode: Denzel* from animation studio A-1 Pictures and BeSTACK.

If you’re a *FFVII* fan and were not already planning on picking up this Blu-Ray release, then the 30 minutes of added footage and original spin-off anime included on the disc should be enough to persuade you into picking this one up. *Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete* will go on sale later this month in Japan. Three different versions of *FFVII: ACC* will go on sale in Japan on April 16, 2009.

This is something I definitely want to get, if not just for the spin-off and bonus footage. Also, there’s the demo of *FFXII* for the Playstation 3. Not too bad if you ask me.

Best Buy Will Offer 50% Off On Anime

Last month it was reported that Best Buy would be changing their anime strategy to focus on stores where anime has performed well historically. Those stores will continue to carry their full selection of anime titles while the other stores be decreasing their selection to only the top selling titles.

The selection will be cut at approximately 800 Best Buy stores in the US, and only 461 stores will carry only the top 20 titles. Over 500 stores will continue to carry over 100 anime DVDs, and roughly the top 200 stores will continue to carry anime selections similiar to what they have now.

The 461 stores that are cutting their selection to the best selling titles only are holding a clearance sale, with usual prices reduced 50%. The sale started on March 1 and will continue until March 21.

RIM’s app store shamelessly dubbed App World; developer site goes live tonight

It looks like RIM is finally taking a big step toward making its on-device app portal a reality. The developer site, blackberry.com/appworld, is set to go live at 10:00 pm EST and end-users will also be able to sign up for alerts at that time. As for the official name… App World. Yep, it’s fairly obvious that the App Store model works and competitors aren’t even bothering with trying to distinguish their offerings from the godfather. In fact by shamelessly copying the name of Apple’s portal, RIM is likely (and wisely) hoping potential customers immediately make the connection with the successful Apple shop and dive right in. So there you have it folks — the on-device App World portal will likely launch to users fairly soon so get those credit cards ready, recession be damned.

Amazon launches Kindle application for the iPhone

Not looking to drop $360 bucks on a gadget purposed almost solely for book reading, but still want to partake in Amazon’s new found love for eBooks? You’re not alone – and if you’ve got an iPhone or iPod Touch, you’re in luck. As we’d assumed they would, Amazon has just launched a free Kindle application for Apple’s much-lauded touchscreen, available immediately.

While it won’t go and turn your iPhone’s display into an e-Ink screen (we feel bad for our eyes already), the Kindle application does replicate much of the functionality provided by the namesake device. You can read any Kindle-compatible book you’ve purchased from Amazon’s catalog, read the first chapter of other books for free, adjust text size, bookmark pages, and view notations made on the Kindle.

One of the big features here is WhisperSync, which automatically keeps track of where you left off in each book, allowing you to pick up from that spot from any Kindle-friendly devices you may have. The feature didn’t seem too useful when the Kindle 2 was announced (How many people have more than one Kindle?) – but with Amazon stretching Kindle across multiple platforms, it makes perfect sense. Leave your Kindle on the bed side table, pick up where you left off on your iPhone once you’re on the bus.

Buying new books is a bit more tedious for iPhone users, as Apple doesn’t allow third parties to sell content within their applications. To get a new book, you’ve got to pop into Safari, then head to the standard Amazon Kindle store and purchase the book there. Amazon’s syncing sorcery takes over from that point. It’s not too bad, but the experience isn’t as seamless as it is on the Kindle.

Will this put Kindle device sales at risk? Not likely. The Kindle is a fairly niche product – not that reading is a niche activity (though it’s probably a bit less common than it should be), but the ideas of eBooks/e-Ink/etc are still fairly foreign to most (though Oprah’s mention definitely didnt hurt). This lets Amazon push more copies of e-products they’ve already got licenses for, all the while coaxing the stubborn folks into the idea of reading books on an electronic screen without requiring them to drop $360 bucks on a dedicated device.

What it may put at risk, however, are all of the other publishers (ScrollMotion, for example) looking to peddle eBooks on the iPhone platform. Amazon’s eBook library is massive, and almost always cheaper than these other options. Has Amazon just conquered the iPhone eBook market?

Thunderbird 3 Beta 2 has new features, plenty of bug fixes

Despite my recent switch from Firefox to Safari 4—dudes, it really is that much faster—when it comes to managing my e-mail, I’m still a devotee of Mozilla’s mail client, Thunderbird. I used Apple’s Mail for a while, but ran into incompatibilities with my mail server, so I ended up switching over to Thunderbird.

So imagine my delight when I found out that just last week, the second beta version of Thunderbird 3 hit the Internet. I’ve just installed it, and have been overall pretty pleased with the new features, which include a new activity manager, a new Gmail-like e-mail archive functions, improved Growl notifications, more keyboard shortcuts, and a metric ton of bug fixes. Also, more cowbell.

Plus, there’s a better, more Mac-like interface, with tabs and a new chrome color scheme. And maybe I’m just imagining things, but it sure seems zippier to me. Of course it’s a beta release, so there’s bound to be some issues here and there, but so far I’m liking what I see.

Nvidia GeForce 250 Rebranding: Complete

Nvidia has said on more than one occasion that it wants to simplify its product line to make it easier for consumers who might not know the difference between, say, an 8800 GTS 256MB, 8800 GTS 512MB, and 8800 GTS 640MB, and why the 512MB trumps them both. Then there’s the 9800GTX+, which is a supercharged 9800 GTX, which is really a supercharged G92-based 8800 GTS, which is confusing as all get-out.

It gets better. Meet the GeForce GTS 250, the videocard formerly known as the 9800 GTX+. The rebranded videocard still uses the 55nm G92b GPU, however in a more mature yielding chip in GTS 250 trim. Available in both 512MB and 1GB configurations, the latter includes a new board design noticeably smaller than the 9800 GTX+ by about an inch and a half.

Other specs include a 738MHz core clockspeed, 1100MHz memory clockspeed, 256-bit memory interface for a 70.4 GB/s of total memory bandwidth, 16 ROPs, 64 texture filtring units, and 128 processor cores. The GTS 250 carries a TDP of 150 watts, and according to Anandtech’s testing, both idle and load power consumption runs about 30W less than the 9800 GTX+.

The 512MB and 1GB versions will run $130 and $150 respectively, with widespread availability expected next week.

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