TechSpot - PC Technology News and Analysis

Firefox 3.6 finally hit its first beta milestone during the weekend, so those of you who were holding off until a more mature build of the upcoming browser became available will be glad to know this is it, no more test candidates or nightly builds needed.

We've been closely watching the development of Firefox's next iteration which brings a long list of additions and refinements to the popular Web browser. After a small developmental setback, Beta 1 arrives highlighting the following new features:

• Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas
• Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe
• Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames
• Support for the WOFF font format
• Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time
• Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies

Since the release of Google Chrome, a lot more focus has been put on browser's speed, not only by Mozilla but all major players including Microsoft. While I still consider Firefox the best all-around browser out there (in good part thanks to the numerous useful add-ons available), I've been experimenting severe slowdown problems on JavaScript heavy pages, whereas even Internet Explorer seems to behave just fine.

Other additions should appeal to a variety of users, depending on what you like to do with your browser. Personas support lets you skin your browser instantly, in fact you can preview Firefox's modified looks by merely hovering over the different styles available. Video support continues to be enhanced on the browser, while developers will be keen about Web Open Font Format (WOFF), HTML5 and CSS' new features support.

Last but not least, Firefox 3.6 Beta will likely break a majority of your current add-ons, however, if you are lucky you should still be able to override compatibility and put them to use regardless.

Nvidia has released GeForce 195.39 beta drivers, its first to support the OpenCL 1.0 specification. The version also brings over 200 bug fixes, support for CUDA Toolkit 3.0 (which will be released in the coming weeks), and SLI support for various titles including Borderlands, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, G-Force, FIFA Soccer 2010, League of Legends: Clash of Fates, NHL 2009, Order of War, Pro Evolution Soccer 2010, Race On, and Star Trek: D-A-C, along with a boost in SLI performance for Champions Online and Dragon-Age: Origins.

Fudzilla notes that SLI support for the above titles is already present in Nvidia's SLI Profile Update 3, which was made available on October 15, so the recent beta release doesn't bring anything too new on that front. Among the couple hundred bug fixes is an error which caused GeForce G210 to switch to 4-bit color mode, and another that caused Battlefield Heroes to freeze on the GTX 280. For a complete rundown on the changes, take a look at the release notes (XP, Vista, 7). Grab your download below:

Windows XP | XP/Server 2003 64-bit | Windows Vista/7 | Vista/7 64-bit

Few years ago a little-known feature called Virtual Wi-Fi was crafted by Microsoft's research group as a way to "virtualize" one wireless card as several separate adapters in Windows. The project was discontinued in 2006, but some of the code apparently made its way into Windows 7, and now at least one company is taking advantage of it with a new application that can turn any laptop into a wireless access point.


Developed by military consulting firm Nomadio, Connectify lets a laptop "tether" other wireless devices to a single Internet connection by effectively turning it into a software-based wireless router. Windows 7 is required on the notebook acting as a wireless hotspot, but any wireless-equipped device, including handhelds and other notebooks running whatever operating system can jump online without any additional software. The program even encrypts traffic to and from the software hotspot using WPA2-Personal (AES) encryption.

While the Connectify beta is free to download, Nomadio expects to charge users once the complete version is released in about six weeks. A free, ad-supported version might also be released down the road.

Mozilla has just released a minor but still significant update to its popular Firefox web browser. Version 3.5.4 is essentially focused on security and stability improvements, closing a as much as 11 critical vulnerabilities among a total of 16. These include problems with third-party media libraries, the core and JavaScript engines, web worker calls, the GIF color map parser and the string-to-number converter.

Some of these problems could result in memory corruption under certain circumstances, Mozilla says, leaving room for hackers to create arbitrary code exploits. The company strongly recommends that all Firefox users upgrade to the latest releases. For those still running the 3.0.x branch however, they have correspondingly released Firefox 3.0.15, addressing nine different issues, including four critical ones.

As usual, users who have turned off automatic updates can use the “Check for Updates...” feature under Help or choose the appropriate OS below to download.

Download: Firefox 3.5.4 for Windows | Mac OS X | Other systems and languages

It seems that AMD waited until Windows 7's big day to release the latest round of Catalyst drivers. Catalyst 9.10 is the first WHQL-certified driver for AMD's new Evergreen graphics line, which is currently comprised of the Radeon 5750, 5770, 5850, and 5870.

The latest release also carries various bug fixes for Windows XP, Vista and 7, including issues with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, Combat Mission: Shock Force, among other software anomalies. View the release notes in full here (PDF), and grab your copy of Catalyst 9.10 below:

Windows XP | Windows XP 64-bit | Windows Vista | Windows Vista 64-bit | Windows 7 | Windows 7 64-bit

In a press event taking place in Las Vegas this week, Microsoft has unveiled that the public betas for Office 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 will arrive in November. The updated suites will bring a number of enhancements over their predecessors, including some new cloud-centric features, and will intersect with each other in areas such as social computing and document management.

Among the features included in Microsoft's newest business collaboration platform, SharePoint Server 2010, are a new ribbon interface similar to that found in Microsoft Office as well as enhanced support for video, audio and Silverlight.

The company isn't giving a specific date for the betas or final products, but has previously said Office 2010 will arrive by the first half of next year, and just recently confirmed a Release Candidate version is due before then. The company also recently revealed that it will be offering a free ad-supported version of Office 2010 that will ship with new PCs, and has been running an invite-only technical preview of Office Web Apps since September.

Paragon Software Group is offering up a free copy of its Partition Manager 9.5 Professional until October 18 (this Sunday). The program is considered to be one of the better partition managers out there, and usually retails for $79.95. It features the ability to enlarge NTFS partitions without rebooting Windows, support for Apple BootCamp, a USB recovery environment, a two-tiered (easy/advanced) interface, and just about anything else you'd expect from a commercial partition tool.


The software comes in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors, which will run on Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, and Vista. While I don’t believe version 9.5 officially supports Windows 7, I have seen positive compatibility reports from users around the Web. Paragon Partition Manager 9.5 Professional has very basic system requirements (300MHz CPU, 256MB of RAM, 100MB storage space), and can be downloaded here.

Microsoft is finally drawing close to an agreement with the European Commission, in a longstanding dispute over alleged anti-competitive practices and abuse of its dominant market position to get people using Internet Explorer. The proposed solution, as you may already know, involves giving users in Europe a ballot screen which would show a choice of browsers on the system’s first boot up.

After several months of back and forth discussions about how this screen should look and operate, Microsoft suggested presenting browsers in alphabetical order without favoring any particular option. While regulators in Europe seemed fond of the plan, they opened the proposal for public comment -- and at least one Mozilla developer is voicing her concerns against it.

In a long blog post yesterday, Jenny Boriss, a Firefox user experience designer, said the current layout gives an unfair advantage to Apple's Safari browser over the competition because it will show up first on the list. Curiously, one of the alternatives she proposes is ordering browsers by market share but excluding Internet Explorer. This deliberate piece of doublethink would obviously give Firefox the privilege of first place instead.

In all fairness she also mentions a couple other alternatives like randomizing the lineup altogether or adjusting the random probability in the browser juggling order, so each browser gets the percentage chance of being first in accordance with its assessed usage share, and users can make a more informed decision.

It should be noted that her personal comments were not made on behalf of the Mozilla Foundation, so it's unclear if they'll submit any of this to European regulators. In the end, the average user probably won't care about how this ballot screen is presented as long as they can get online fast and without complications.

Originally scheduled to go live mid-September, Mozilla has pushed back the release of its Firefox 3.6 Beta by another week while offering an early "test build" for those who just can't wait to tinker with it from today. Codenamed Namoroka, this minor upgrade is expected to bring Windows 7 compatible taskbar thumbnails, visual tab previews, and will be based upon the latest version (1.9.2) of the Gecko engine.

The visual tab previews feature is not enabled by default, according to Lifehacker, but you can enable them by heading to about:config in your address bar, searching for browser.ctrlTab.previews, and setting that value to "true." Furthermore, this early test release should include built-in support for Mozilla's Plugin Check feature.

Other improvements include faster JavaScript handling, bookmark synchronization, better form completion tools, and page load enhancements. You can download the Firefox 3.6 Beta test build here and don't hesitate to share your thoughts in the comments box below.

If you're a fan of ZoneAlarm or just hunting for a featured software firewall, you may be interested in a promotion Check Point Software is running today. The company is offering a free one-year license for its ZoneAlarm Pro Firewall 2010, which usually costs about $40. If this sounds a bit familiar, it's probably because the same promotion was available this time last year.

ZoneAlarm has been extremely popular over the years, and while it caused Vista users plenty of grief, the latest version claims compatibility with Windows 2000 through Windows 7. If you're at all interested, be sure to hop on the giveaway as soon as possible, because it's a one-day deal. The company notes that the offer is only valid for new customers, and the license can be used on up to three PCs until October 14 2010.

If you miss the cutoff and still want to give ZoneAlarm a shot, you can always grab the free edition from our downloads section.

The next iteration of Firefox, version 3.6, will be able to detect the orientation of laptops and mobile devices that come loaded with accelerometers. Mozilla evangelist Christopher Blizzard announced the new feature on a blog post yesterday and offered a short video of the technology in action.

The feature was originally planned for the mobile version of Firefox only, according to Blizzard, but since a few laptops already have tilt sensors built-in, Mozilla developers decided to include it in the desktop version as well. Some possible uses being tossed around include labyrinth-type games with virtual marbles rolling on boards, and a number of other gaming situations.

While I can't imagine tilting a full-fledged laptop to play labyrinth-type games will ever catch on, orientation-aware gaming makes much more sense on mobile devices. Furthermore the technology could also be of some use on business-oriented web applications when combined with a tablet device. Developers need only add a simple event listener to their JavaScript code to use the orientation information.

You can view more information and demos about the upcoming feature on Fennec developer Doug Turner's blog. A beta release of Firefox 3.6 is expected to arrive soon, assuming the Mozilla team hasn’t hit any last minute snags, followed by the final version later this year.

Virus Bulletin has published the results of its October 2009 test for Windows Server 2008 SP2 32-bit. The outfit tested 26 applications this time around, 11 of which failed, including the popular Avira AntiVir Server and Sophos Anti-Virus.

In order to pass Virus Bulletin's test, the submitted products were required to detect all malware known to be "In the Wild" via both on-demand and on-access, without reporting any false positives. They were bombarded with some 3,000 unique samples of four malware types: WildList viruses, worms and bots, polymorphic viruses, and Trojans.

Although Avira and Sophos' products failed Virus Bulletin's test, they only missed one malware sample out of the thousands faced -- in order to receive a VB100 award, applications must detect 100%. That said, Avira told Ars Technica that the issue was sorted before VB's results were published.

Ars has posted a complete list of results for all products tested, which you can view after the jump.

With Windows 7's debut right around the corner, program developers are working to fine tune their software for Microsoft's latest operating system. In addition to the other interface tweaks and new features, Windows 7's revamped taskbar is probably the first thing that will catch your eye. Icons on the bar now have "jump lists" that offer quick access to things unique to each application. For instance, a Microsoft Word jump list displays all of the recently opened documents.


Many programs have yet to make use of this feature. Google Chrome added jump list support some time back, and an upcoming release of Mozilla Firefox will as well. Firefox build 3.7 utilizes jump lists by maintaining a list of frequently visited websites, and allows you to open a new tab or window. If that sounds like your cup of tea, you can download an incomplete pre-release build here at your own risk -- if it's any consolation, Download Squad reports that the build was pretty stable for them after 24 hours of use.

In an update to its Firefox browser last month, Mozilla introduced a new feature to warn users of outdated and possibly insecure plug-ins, prompting them via the "What's New" landing page to download a new version if available. Although initially this only covered Flash Player installations, the idea was to extend this check to include other popular plug-ins as well, and now the company is doing just that.


Mozilla developers have released a new plug-in check service, which looks at more popular plug-ins and either warns users to upgrade whenever a newer version is available, or displays a green "Learn More" button if things are up to date. Furthermore, if there is a known exploit fixed by a newer version of a particular plug-in, you'll get a red button urging you to "Update NOW" -- or offering to disable it if there is no fix.

Mozilla's plug-in check service is in the testing phase right now but might eventually make its way onto the "What's New" page on future versions of Firefox. Users who want to check it out right now can do so by visiting this link, though. Note that your browser will detect an invalid certificate so you'll have to add an exception.

Nvidia has released a new WHQL-certified driver for GeForce owners, which brings the typical round of bug fixes, game improvements and broadens SLI support. Driver version 191.07 brings up to a 12% performance increase in ARMA 2, 8% in Batman: Arkham Asylum (with PhysX enabled), 50% in Call of Juarez: Blood in Bound (in SLI setups), 14% in Fallout 3 (indoor scenes with AA enabled), 10% in Far Cry 2 (DirectX 9 version with AA enabled), and 34% in Prototype (with AA enabled).

Version 191.07 brings OpenGL 3.2 support and SLI capabilities to a slew of new titles, including Aion, Darkfall, Dawn of Magic 2: Time of Shadows, Dreamkiller, Fuel, Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim, and Need for Speed: Shift. Bug fixes are spread across Windows XP, Vista and 7, and can be viewed in full via the official release notes linked on each operating system (PDF).

Download: Windows XP | XP/2003 64-bit | Windows Vista | Vista 64-bit | Windows 7 | 7 64-bit

Hot on the heels of Microsoft's Security Essentials launch last week, AVG Technologies is unveiling a major update to its free and paid internet security products which the company claims brings much faster scan times as well as a number of under-the-hood improvements.

Responding to customer feedback the security firm has reportedly put special focus on improving the user experience and ease of use. As a result, version 9.0 is said to be "up to 50 percent" faster than its predecessor, thanks to more sophisticated caching techniques and memory use. Boot times have also been reduced by around 10 to 15 percent and overall the installation process on the full-fledged suite has been shortened from 22 screens to 11.

In addition to the anti-phishing protection offered through LinkScanner, AVG 9.0 now also includes additional protection against identity theft in the physical world (for US customers only) with the AVG Identity Theft Recovery Unit (ITRU). Meanwhile, firewall enhancements include a complete redesign and a new cloud-based white listing database to reduce the amount of user input required to secure a PC.

Both AVG Internet Security 9 and AVG Anti-Virus are available now for a one-year license of $49.99 and $34.99, respectively. The main difference between the two is that AVG Anti-Virus lacks the firewall, identity protection, anti-spam, and system tools that come in AVG Internet Security. As always, a cut-down free version will also be available but starting from mid-October.

If for a second you thought Flash was ubiquitous enough already, Adobe seems to be taking the appropriate steps to make the most of its technology, not only in the desktop but in a wider range of devices. This week the company is hosting its annual Adobe MAX developer conference where it just announced an upcoming update for its Flash Player, meant to enable video and other rich web applications in mobile devices that are part of the Open Screen Project.

Just recently we had reported on rumors regarding a new Flash Player that would finally add GPU acceleration for video playback. Considering that even today's high-end desktops can come to a crawl on occasion when Flash-heavy web sites are loaded, this sounded like encouraging news. But with the official announcement upon us, now we know the focus is on getting Flash video running smoothly on mobile and otherwise underpowered devices - with one big omission.

As part of the Open Screen Project, Adobe is announcing GPU acceleration in netbooks from HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Acer, Asus and others sporting GeForce, Ion and Tegra chipsets. In the smartphone realm, the new Flash Player will make it to almost all major platforms: Windows Mobile, Palm webOS, Google Android, Symbian and even RIM's Blackberry. A notable absence is the iPhone OS. More details and additional information related to the Flash platform are available in the full press announcement.

It looks like Nvidia and Adobe's long-promised support for GPU-accelerated Flash videos is finally coming to fruition. Although no official announcement has been made, the graphics firm has reportedly been showing early builds of the GPU-accelerated Flash Player around, with YouTube's HD videos running smoothly on Ion-based netbooks where the same footage stutters on Intel's Atom platform.

The technique works by adapting Ion to recognize and process the H.264 encoded video inside the Flash environment. Adobe's GPU-accelerated Flash Player is also expected to work with other Nvidia chipsets, including Tegra, which should bring high definition streaming to portable devices like Microsoft's Zune HD and several of upcoming smartphones.

It's unclear exactly when users will be getting their hands on the updated Flash Player, or if the GPU-acceleration feature will initially be exclusive to Nvidia hardware, but the company is expected to make an official announcement next month, on October 5th. Adobe has previously said they hope to have accelerated Flash for Ion and other graphics chipsets in the first half of 2010.

Following a year-long development phase and several months in limited public beta, Microsoft has finally released the full version of its anti-malware scanner today -- Microsoft Security Essentials. Formerly codenamed Morro, this free-of-charge replacement for OneCare is designed to provide consumers with real-time protection against Trojans, computer viruses, spyware and rootkits.

Although it lacks the personal firewall, backup and PC tuning features found in its late sibling, Security Essentials has fared quite well against similar suites in tests conducted by PC World, and at the very least it will help Microsoft get a larger percentage of the Windows ecosystem protected by security software.


Its interface has been made very simple for users of all backgrounds, with only four main tabs to choose from, whereas more experienced users will still be able to customize their choice of protection. Looking to placate concerns about resource hogging and nagging, Microsoft promises Security Essentials is designed to run quietly in the background, alerting the user only when there is an action for them to take.

Also, in addition to taking advantage of daily signature downloads, the software is reportedly able to validate suspicious files against newly identified malware in near-real time by querying the 'Dynamic Signature Service'. Overall, it looks like Security Essentials has a lot going for it and could turn out to be a real contender in the free antivirus arena. If you are interested in giving it a try, XP, Vista and Windows 7 versions of the software can be downloaded here -- the only restriction on use is that it has to be installed on a "genuine" Windows PC.

Last year Apple received its fair share of criticism from Windows users after enabling its software update tool that is usually installed along iTunes and Quicktime to also download and install the Safari browser. The result? A tripling market share in just a month. Later on Apple would rectify and stop checking the Safari download box by default.

In similar fashion, Ed Bott, blogger at ZDNet recently found Apple's software installer enabling another unwanted piece of software by default when prompted to update iTunes on a clean Windows 7 installation. This time the prompt was for downloading the "iPhone Configuration Utility", despite of the fact he doesn't own nor has he connected an iPhone to such computer. While this may seem like the perfect excuse to get back at Apple, this doesn't look as purposeful as last year's attempt to grab some market browser share. It is however some sloppy practice on Apple's part.

Perhaps the real story behind the story is the lack of consistence you get when every single manufacturer wants to push application updates while leaving standby processes running in the background. For once, Microsoft should promote a platform that could be shared among developers, streamlining the experience for the user. That's not to say third party companies couldn't do much better themselves rather than bloating your OS installation by default: Apple, RIM, Adobe, Nokia, even Google, you name it.

Editor's note: Two hours after writing this story I was prompted by Apple's Software Update utility to download updates for iTunes, Quicktime and also the iPhone Configuration Utility.

Mozilla is taking Firefox down a new (and somewhat unexpected) road in the near future. Among the usual security and performance enhancements, it seems the user interface is due for an overhaul. Most likely starting with the release of the Firefox 3.7 branch, Mozilla is replacing the traditional menu system with a ribbon menu, very similar to the ones present in Office 2007 and other recent Microsoft software.

The "contextual strip" is something most people have become familiar with -- for better or worse. In addition to making the interface easier to navigate, the ribbon menu will improve screen real estate -- a bonus for people using Firefox on very small displays. Mozilla has commented on the change, saying that they feel the existing Firefox UI is too dated and cumbersome, and is becoming inconsistent. The latter bit is probably more important than most people realize.

Even if you dislike ribbon menus, they are increasingly common on modern Windows machines, and familiarity is a plus. Not all hope is lost for the naysayers, though. A mere press of the Alt key will return users to the older (current) interface. Mozilla admits that the move is still a proposal at the moment, and user input will be key in making a final decision.

Intel has unveiled its Moblin 2.1 operating system, which is suitable for phones, MIDs, and netbooks. Short for "Mobile Linux," Moblin has mostly warmed the bench, but Intel is prepared to let the latest build see some action.

Recognizing that less is more, Moblin encompasses a minimalist interface that is fine-tuned for handheld devices. The interface includes widget-based social networking apps, the Firefox-derived Fennec mobile browser, and a Palm Pre-style, panels-based navigation system that allows you to flip through multiple running programs.


Moblin 2.1 is also Flash and Silverlight-friendly, so interactive apps will be able to run inside web pages -- unlike Apple's iPhone. According to Microsoft, its ability to display Silverlight will allow developers to build apps once that work on both Windows and Moblin.

APC Mag has various images straight from the demonstration at IDF 2009 that you should check out if you're at all interested in the upcoming mobile OS.

Redmond is reportedly gearing up to launch its upcoming antivirus software, Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE). The company has emailed beta testers of the software to inform them that the finished product will be pushed out "in the coming weeks."

MSE will be free of charge and provide real-time protection against viruses, spyware, rootkit, and Trojans for Windows XP 32-bit, Windows Vista/7 32-bit, and Windows Vista/7 64-bit systems. If this seems unfamiliar, you may know MSE by its initial codename, "Morro." An early build (1.0.2140.0) leaked in June, which prompted Microsoft to place a beta (1.0.1407.00) in the hands of 75,000 testers.

Beta testing has continued since, with the most recent version (1.0.1500.00) being released in August. In the recent email, Microsoft encourages beta testers to install the newest build by clicking Upgrade Now in the Home tab, or Upgrade Microsoft Security Essentials in the Help menu.

You can read the full email after the jump.

Microsoft has kicked off an invite-only "technical preview" of Office Web Apps, the browser-based version of its office productivity suite. Since yesterday a limited number of users have had access to the free online editions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, on any device capable of running Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari.

The web interface mimics the ribbon-based look of Office 2007 and upcoming Office 2010, and retains most of the editing and formatting features of their respective desktop counterparts.

Initially not all features have been enabled, though. Testers won't be able to edit Word documents online, for example, only view them; but they can create, view and edit Excel worksheets and PowerPoint presentations. The Office Web Apps version of OneNote is also missing and will be made available "at a later milestone" along with tighter Office 2010 integration on the desktop.

Microsoft plans to open Office Web Apps to the general public for testing, but it has not set a date for that beta other than saying it will be available before the end of this year. The final version should be available as a free part of Windows Live sometime next year, probably around the time Office 2010 launches, no doubt in response to increased competition from Google and other web-based office solutions.

In addition to fixing 43 bugs (nine critical), Firefox 3.5.3 warns users if they are using outdated versions of Adobe's Flash Player. Mozilla simply tossed a notice up on Firefox's update page to inform people who might be using old versions of Flash unknowingly. That decision reportedly lead about 10 million users to download up-to-date software from Adobe's website.

Mozilla chairperson Mitchell Baker called the surge a "very high response rate," in a blog post Wednesday. Baker said that the percentage of people viewing the notification, and then following the link to update Flash is about 30%. She added that a typical response is about 5% -- so naturally six times that number is quite the reaction.

Mozilla may notify users about other expired plug-ins in future versions of Firefox, and the fact that people have been receptive so far is "encouraging" according to Baker.

Last month we covered reports exposing Digsby's shady moneymaking scheme, and they've taken that criticism to heart. For the unfamiliar, Digsby was profiting from users' idle CPU cycles -- but buried that information in the terms of service, and you had to rummage through the settings to disable it.

The instant messenger now asks for permission to do so during installation, which is great -- kind of. While it is more transparent, the distributed computing option is enabled by default. Granted, in a perfect world, users would take two minutes to skim the conditions of a software installation -- but let's face it, a lot of people just click "Next" until the window disappears.

Digsby has also included a "Research Module" tab in the preferences, which offers a clear explanation of its intent, and even allows users to configure its behavior. Do you feel that Digsby has set things straight with these adjustments?

A few weeks back, Microsoft gave users of Windows Live Messenger versions 8.1, 8.5 and 14.0 the choice to upgrade their software. As of last night, though, the update is no longer optional. Users of the older messengers are required to install version 14.0.8089.726 if they care to sign in.

According to Microsoft, the mandatory update is an attempt to ensure the security of the 300-plus million people who use Windows Live Messenger each month. The newest version plugs many holes, like those mentioned in Microsoft's Security Advisory (973882). With so many people using the service, Microsoft says it will take several weeks to complete the rollout.


By early October, users of 14.0 will also receive optional upgrade messages -- which will be turn forced later in the month. As draconian as this may seem, 8.1 and 8.5 have been around the block and back again. Microsoft released the former in January 2007, and the latter November 2007.

Just over a year after first launching Chrome into the browser scene, Google has announced a new stable build in the 3.0 branch. Besides the usual range of bug fixes, Chrome 3.0 includes the promised support for themes, a more customizable New Tab page, an improved Omnibox (the equivalent to Firefox's Awesome Bar), better HTML5 capabilities, and a higher performing V8 engine.

Of course, none of this will come as a surprise if you've been using the cutting-edge dev builds, but it's still nice to see the 3.0 series become the stable mainstream release. According to Google, the release comes after 51 developer, 21 beta and 15 stable updates and 3,505 bug fixes in the past year -- which reportedly equates to 150% faster JavaScript performance since the first beta release and 25% since the last stable release.

Google also announced that the Mac version of Chrome -- currently only available for testing -- will be released by the year's end, and that extensions support won't arrive in the stable release of Chrome until version 4.0. If you feel adventurous, though, you could switch to the dev channel and test this feature out a bit early.

The iPhone's development horizons have been expanded, with Novell's recent addition to the suite of tools available for program construction. Novell is introducing a development kit that relies on Mono, allowing developers to make use of Microsoft's .Net Framework and C# as opposed to the iPhone-traditional C or Objective-C. Novell believes that having such options will make development more readily available to programmers, arguing that C# and .Net are better environments to develop in.

Though built on top of Mono, an open-source product, MonoTouch is a commercial endeavor aimed at professional development. Novell seeks to make it attractive through the inclusion of compilers and libraries, which will integrate with the existing iPhone SDK. Developers will be able to make use of both the iPhone API and, through the use of cross-compiling, convert .Net programs into iPhone-compatible software.

This might also open the door for developers who are experienced with .Net and C#, but have not developed on the iPhone. Additionally, it could make it easier to port over existing mobile applications already developed for .Net. As mentioned above, it's a commercial project -- and with a price tag of about $1000 per year, it's not going to be within reach of the solo programmer. Nevertheless, a free development kit may emerge down the road.

AMD has released the latest Catalyst drivers for its Radeon graphics cards. The release is mostly comprised of bug fixes and little to no performance improvements. That doesn't take away from the general importance of keeping your graphics drivers up to date, though -- especially if you're a gamer.

Resolved issues are listed for Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, and 7. Among the fixes is one that prevents intermittent failures with MediaShow Expresso, HDMI is now detected properly when the display is hotplugged for the first time, Windows Aero Glass works now works properly during HD Blu-ray playback, and switching between the desktop and a game in progress no longer has a visible delay.

The list goes on, and you view it more extensively after the jump. Full release notes can be found here (PDF). Grab the appropriate version of Catalyst 9.9 for your system:

Windows XP | XP/2003 64-bit | Windows Vista | Vista 64-bit | Windows 7 | Windows 7 64-bit