TechSpot - PC Technology News and Analysis

When Mozilla made the transition from the Firefox 2.x series to the current 3.x series, they broke a record by netting over 8 million downloads in the first day it was available. Much of this was due to a very successful PR campaign. Firefox 3.5 was released without all that fanfare, but still managed to hold its own. Enough people were interested in the update to net Mozilla over 5 million downloads in the first 24 hours of availability.

What's more, this time they did it without any server mishaps, no doubt planning for a surge in server load in advance. Whether or not 3.5 is an exciting release is left up to you, but we can all agree that Mozilla has definitely helped changed the face of the Internet in the past several years. Hopefully they will continue to do such as Firefox becomes a more serious competitor than ever against IE.

Following several test versions and on the very last day of its self imposed deadline, Mozilla has finally released Firefox 3.5 to the world. Originally dubbed 3.1, the new version brings a private browsing mode, support for emerging HTML 5 standards, location-aware browsing, a reduced memory footprint, updated anti-malware and anti-phishing features, improved tabs and more. The most notable new feature, however, is the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine which offers substantial speed improvements over previous releases.

In fact, Mozilla claims Firefox 3.5 is twice as fast as 3.0 and more than ten times as fast as 2.0. Exaggeration or not, recent benchmarks show the browser’s JavaScript performance is indeed faster, but still behind Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari. Firefox does have some advantages of its own that will keep people from switching away to rival browsers. Namely, a wide range of add-ons to expand its functionality and enough market share to make developers test their sites for Firefox compatibility.

The latest version comes little over a year after the much-publicized release of Firefox 3.0, which broke the world record for most downloads in a single day after 8,002,530 people downloaded the software. Users can download Firefox 3.5 here (7.7 MB), or head to Mozilla’s site to read the official release notes.

Whether for the limited-time savings or an eager need to ditch Vista, preordering of Windows 7 has been immensely popular at certain online retailers. Amazon.com in particular has handled quite a number of orders placed for the operating system, with the majority of people buying the $49 upgrade version of Windows 7 Home Premium. As it stands, the package is ranked as number one at the retailer’s electronics products section, beating all other software and electronic gadgets on the site.

Microsoft's pre-retail success with Windows 7 is not exclusive to the US either, with several reports around the web suggesting that demand has exceeded the company’s expected supply in Japan. As far as ad campaigns go, Microsoft hasn't played up Windows 7 nearly as much as they did Vista, so why the demand? – Especially after such a short time since Vista's release. Whatever each individual’s reason for upgrading is, it seems Windows 7 is off to a good start.

As promised, Microsoft today released its Security Essentials beta, the free product for fighting viruses, spyware, rootkits, and Trojans that is replacing Redmond’s paid Windows Live OneCare subscription service. The beta is available in 32 and 64-bit flavors for the first 75,000 users, although Microsoft says this is a target number, and it is willing to increase it if necessary – just like it did with Windows 7 Beta.

Microsoft is pitching the software as a basic antimalware solution that consumes less memory and disk space than commercial security suites from the likes of Symantec and McAfee. Users can download MSE from Microsoft Connect by going to microsoft.com/security_essentials, logging in with their Windows Live ID, and taking a seven-question survey. If you are not put off by the extra steps, you’ll find download links for XP, Vista and Windows 7. Not surprisingly, the software won't work with pirated or non-validated versions of Windows.

As Nvidia progresses down the path of becoming a competitor in the netbook market, a lot of people have been watching their moves and speculating on their plans. Some of it has come to light in a recent interview with ComputerWorld, where the graphics firm revealed it is endorsing Windows CE as its platform of choice for netbooks built using the ARM based Tegra system-on-a-chip solution – at least initially.

Nvidia claims that WinCE has proved itself in mobile environments, having both a low memory footprint and a good track record, coupled with an ample software library and none of the “growing pains” that other operating systems are currently experiencing. The last part is important to the company, who sees the other two contenders – Linux and Android – as unsuitable for deploying on Tegra. Technical merits and benefits aside, Nvidia feels these operating systems are just not ready for running on Tegra, citing Android’s inadequate video playback performance and the unsuitability of its user interface for netbook-sized screens.

All hope is not lost for open-source fans, however. Google is apparently working with Nvidia to create a more specialized version of Android that would give them the features they want. Even if it comes late, it may not be a huge setback – WinCE will still have to deal with the fact that the majority of software for the mobile world is still based on x86 technology. Perhaps Nvidia will revisit the idea of using Android or another Linux-based option down the road.

Last week, Mozilla rolled out the first release candidate of Firefox 3.5. While that build went only to about 800,000 beta testers, developers have now released RC2 to the general public, bringing with it many new features and speed enhancements compared to previous Firefox versions. With a second release candidate in the wild, the final version of Firefox 3.5 is getting closer — Mozilla’s goal is to have Firefox 3.5 out before the end of June.

The updated user interface, standards support, revamped JavaScript engine and new privacy controls, bring Mozilla’s browser up to speed with recent releases from Apple and Google. Users can now download Firefox 3.5 RC2 for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The latest build contains a few bug fixes, although according to Mozilla’s Mike Beltzner, these were minor stability issues corrected after the release of the first release candidate.

Microsoft has announced that a beta version of their upcoming free antivirus software, Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), will be released June 23. The application will provide real-time protection against viruses, spyware, trojans and rootkits. Up until Tuesday when the pre-beta version leaked, it had only been touched by the hands of Microsoft employees and select testers.


The coming beta will be publicly available to 75,000 users which speak English and Portuguese. It will come as a 32 and 64-bit standalone installer for Windows XP, Vista and 7 users. Redmond says that 75k is a target figure and they’ll consider an increase if necessary. Following the initial beta, Microsoft plans to launch a Beta Refresh or possibly even a Release Candidate over the summer. The finished product is expected to arrive by Windows 7’s release date of October 22.

MSE appears to be pretty lightweight and has modest system requirements. Installed, it consumes about 11MB of space and requests that 140MB of additional hard drive space is available. For XP users it is recommended to have a CPU with a clock speed of at least 500MHz and a minimum of 256MB of RAM. Vista and 7 users are suggested to have a 1GHz CPU and 1GB of RAM.

Update (6/18): Microsoft confirmed today that they plan to release a public beta of Microsoft Security Essentials (formerly codenamed Morro) this Tuesday June 23.

Following up from a report on Neowin yesterday, Ars Technica has revealed that Microsoft’s upcoming anti-virus software has dropped the Morro moniker and is now officially known as Microsoft Security Essentials. They have uploaded a new set of screenshots briefly going over the installation process, some of the program’s features, and showing the updated user interface.


Based on the recently leaked build, Ars reports that MSE has separate installers for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 in both 32 and 64-bit flavors. File sizes are also rather small, ranging from 3 MB to 7 MB. The security software will completely replace Windows’ built-in Defender, and should offer real-time protection against viruses, spyware, rootkits, and Trojans. Although Microsoft Security Essentials is already being tested internally, the company is expected to offer a public beta “soon,” and have the final version ready later this year.

Mozilla developers have quietly launched the first release candidate for Firefox 3.5 today. Like previous releases, it is based on version 1.9.1 of the Gecko layout engine and includes several performance and stability improvements to the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine. New features like Location Aware Browsing and Private Browsing Mode are part of this version, which also adds support for HTML5 video and audio elements, downloadable fonts, several new CSS properties and HTML5 offline data storage for online applications.

Currently, Firefox 3.5 RC1 is being pushed to beta and preview users through the browser's automatic update function – those using the stable version can find a download link here and avoid the extra steps (official page still links to 3.5b4). This is still pre-release software, so a few compatibility problems with add-ons and websites are to be expected. That said, Firefox 3.5 RC1 should be nearly identical to the final release, which Mozilla says is due around the end of the month. More details can be found in the release notes.

Back in November, Microsoft announced plans to kill its Windows Live OneCare subscription-based security suite and replace it with a free antimalware solution; codenamed “Morro.” The software giant only said at that time that the new offering would be available in the second half of 2009, but it appears some testers are already taking it for a spin, and Neowin has managed to obtain some screenshots of the upcoming suite.


The leaked screenshots show an interface somewhat similar to Windows Defender, offering the typical variety of options such as quick, full and custom scans, as well as virus and spyware definition downloads and scheduled scan settings. There’s not much more we can infer with regard to the software’s functionality from these shots, but ZDNet is reporting that Morro will be almost entirely cloud-based, although exactly how that would work remains unknown.

Morro is expected to provide simple anti-malware features and compete with similar free products from other providers. Although it will likely debut in its final form around the same time Windows 7 launches, it should be available as a separate download to avoid anti-trust concerns, and will also work with Windows Vista and XP.

The folks over at Opera have taken the wraps off a new experimental project called Opera Unite, which turns any computer into both a client and a server, allowing users to share content with others over the Internet. Components of the browser-based service include file sharing, photo sharing, a notes exchange system, a shared media player, a chat lounge and the ability to run websites hosted on the user's PC.

None of it is actually new, but by bundling all these features on an easily-managed server within the browser, Opera hopes to make sharing data as simple and easy as surfing the web so that anyone can partake in it. Users control exactly what they want to share and set access as public, private or a password-protected hybrid. While those hosting the content need to be running Opera, people viewing it can do so from within any modern browser, including Internet Explorer or Firefox.

The six initial services represent the beginning of what is possible, according to Opera, which is encouraging developers to create new functionality based on Unite. The effort is quite innovative but with Opera’s tiny browser market share it probably won’t “reinvent the web” as they claim; or perhaps the concept will have a bigger impact if implemented by rival browsers. In any case, an alpha version of Unite can be downloaded from the Opera Labs website if you want to test out the new feature, and a demo video is available after the jump.

Mozilla has released a new version of its Firefox software designed to fix several stability bugs in the browser engine, some of which showed evidence of memory corruption and could potentially be exploited to run arbitrary code. Of the nine flaws fixed in Firefox 3.0.11, four were rated critical, one high, two moderate and two low in Mozilla’s four-step system.

One of the critical issues addressed centers on a vulnerability that allows JavaScript from a page's content to run with elevated privileges, while another involved a condition that resulted when navigating away from a web page during the loading of a Java applet. This could have resulted in freed memory that an attacker could write to before it is reused, and then run arbitrary code on the victim’s computer.

In addition to the security fixes, the Firefox developers updated the version of SQLite used within the browser to remove errors that could destroy the bookmark database. As usual, the update will be pushed directly to Firefox users. You can also get Firefox 3.0.11 here and read the detailed security notices at Mozilla’s website.

Promising faster speeds and lower demand on machines, the upcoming USB 3.0 standard is intended to be the next best thing for the ubiquitous technology. With hardware manufacturers already introducing USB 3.0 controllers and compatible hardware expected to follow soon, you'd assume that the biggest names in the software industry would be hot on their heels, creating drivers that supported the new technology. But no, neither Microsoft nor Apple are touting out of the box USB 3.0 support in their upcoming operating systems.


Meanwhile, a developer at Intel's Open Source Technology Center has been working on USB 3.0 support for the Linux kernel that has reportedly been finalized. Furthermore, the developer has released instructions on how to get USB 3.0 working already – despite an obvious lack of USB 3.0 hardware out there.

We agree there's little point to the achievement for now. But in the meantime, if you are interested in learning what future USB 3.0 holds for us, check out this article detailing everything you need to know about the technology.

It’s the end of the road for Microsoft Money. Following a halt on retail sales last August, the Redmond giant today announced it will completely stop selling its venerable personal finance program on June 30; although it plans to support it through January 2011. Microsoft spokesman Adam Sohn claims the decision stems from the changing customer patterns and greater functionality offered by of banks and other specialized websites.

Past the January 2011 cut-off date, people can continue to use the product, but they will no longer be able to get automated data feeds from their banks, credit card companies and other financial service providers. Understanding that some early Money users may have more than a decade of financial data stored in the product, Sohn also said Microsoft is working on ways to help users transition to other desktop products if they choose, with a data conversion utility for Quicken currently in the works.

The move is seen as a quiet acknowledgment that online services may best be suited to such tasks as budgeting, personal accounting, and tax planning. It is also reminiscent of the recent Encarta Encyclopedia and Windows OneCare downfalls.

Following an official announcement yesterday at WWDC ’09, Apple has released a new version of Safari to the masses. The updated browser delivers a laundry list of security fixes, eleven of them specific to Windows, along with a handful of new features – although if you’ve been using the beta then there’s not much new. These include a revamped user interface, cover flow history browsing and full page zoom; among other things.

Safari 4 also introduces support for the latest web standards, which include implementations of HTML 5 and CSS 3, as well as a new JavaScript engine called Nitro that Apple claims performs up to four times faster than Safari 3. The company goes as far as proclaiming it the world’s fastest browser. Several independent tests actually show that is not the case, but results are close enough to current leader Chrome that it may not even matter much in real-world usage. You can grab Safari 4 from our download section in both Windows and Mac flavors.

Google has just released developer preview versions of its Chrome browser for the Mac OS X and Linux platforms, nine months after the software made its debut on Windows. However, given their current 'rough around the edges' status, the company is naturally warning most users to avoid downloading, “unless of course you are a developer or take great pleasure in incomplete, unpredictable, and potentially crashing software.”

If you happen to fall into that category, here are the download links. Google says that, among other things, the new versions lack compatibility with Adobe’s Flash Player plug-in, the ability to change privacy settings and default search provider, or even basic print functionality. It added that they will continue working on both platforms to come up with a “stable enough” beta version of the browser sometime soon.

Development of Firefox 3.5 has seen yet another – albeit minor – delay. Originally slated for early June, the first release candidate version of the browser is now expected to be available within the next week or two. According to meeting notes posted yesterday by Mozilla, there are 10 bugs still awaiting a fix before Firefox 3.5's code can be locked in preparation for a last round of testing before release.

The final version of Firefox 3.5 may still make Mozilla’s end-of-June deadline, providing of course that all code blockers can be eliminated in that time, and that Mozilla limits itself to a single RC. It has taken them a while alright but hopefully this means that the Firefox team is being rigorous about the quality of its product. The current development release, Firefox 3.5 beta 4, was released at the end of April alongside the current stable release. A new security and stability update, Firefox 3.0.11, is also expected within the next 48 hours.

Today Opera Software has released the first beta version of its upcoming Opera 10 browser. The new release boasts a new design, features, and faster downloads. It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. According to the company, the new browser is over 40% faster than previous versions on websites such as Gmail and Facebook which can be resource intensive.


Of the new features is the ability to view all your open tabs in thumbnail form. The thumbnails are resizable so browser space isn't sacrificed if you wish to view your tabs in this more visual format. Speedial can now show up to 25 websites and the background image is customizable. Toolbars have become easier to tailor and the all the panels have been clumped together on a sidebar.

You can also generate your own panels to manage things like e-mail, newsfeeds, and chat. Opera 10 beta improves on Opera Dragonfly and its Turbo mode as well. The company has claimed that Turbo mode “can offer broadband-like speeds on dial up.” Being that it's in beta, expect more changes and improvements to come along the way.

Opera is just ahead of Google and Apple on the global Internet traffic pie, holding a small 4% as compared to Internet Explorer’s 60% and Firefox’s 30%. However, its browser is the most used among the mobile segment, and it's certainly a worthy desktop alternative if you're in the mood for a change.

At the end of April, Mozilla made the most current stable version of Firefox 3.0.x available alongside the latest beta of it successor, Firefox 3.5. We can always expect a software company to play up the advantages of newer code over older code, but Mozilla is putting a lot of weight into the development of its next version of Firefox.

According to their blog, the upcoming 3.5 branch will supposedly be ten times faster than Firefox 2 and twice as fast as Firefox 3.0. They are so excited about these prospects that they've started a new viral marketing campaign inviting Firefox fans to upload videos in which they are doing something “very fast.” It's an increasingly common approach to marketing, though still a novel one.

Of course, fast is a relative term. How exactly does Mozilla come up with figures like ten times as fast or twice as fast? Many are curious and have asked just that, with Mozilla saying little aside from “wait for more details.” Are we talking rendering speed? Code execution speed? They did mention SunSpider being used as one of their benchmarks, which is specific to JavaScript execution. It is clear Mozilla doesn't want to lag too far behind Google and Apple, both of whom have browsers with impressive script execution specs. You can always snag the betas if you want and try them out, but I hope Mozilla elaborates further on their plans for Firefox 3.5.

Microsoft and Asus are partnering up in an effort to stifle the already declining Linux netbook presence – as if Microsoft needed a better market position, or another ad campaign for that matter. The two companies have launched a website propagating an unsurprisingly irritating mantra: “it’s better with Windows.” The promotion revolves around the concept that Windows will deliver a dependable and familiar experience, free of major incompatibility issues.

Once a Linux-rich division, Microsoft has all but stolen the netbook show. According to an NPD report last month, netbooks that ship with Windows have risen from 10% in the first half of 2008 to 96% in February 2009. That's not to say Linux is no longer receiving attention, Intel's Moblin OS is perhaps one of the most interesting projects currently around for netbook users.

While I’ve dabbled with various Linux distributions myself and have always crawled back to Windows – am I the only one who is irked by "it's better with Windows"?

Microsoft officials announced yesterday that they plan to launch Silverlight 3 and its Expression Studio 3 family of designer tools on July 10. Previously looking to finish by the end of the year, their present release date will come months in advance. For the inquisitive developers patiently waiting to check out the latest version of Silverlight, there is a beta lacking “go-live” licensing and the end-user runtime. Announced back in March, it is currently the only planned beta.

The third version of Silverlight is expected to bring upwards of 50 new features, above all 3D support, GPU acceleration, a slew of additional media support and out-of-the-browser capabilities. It is expected to deliver support for H.264, AAC, full 720p+ playback and an extensible decoder pipeline. Updates in line with the “richer experiences” include pixel shader and animation effects, a new bitmap API and improved text rendering and font support. Other features include 60+ controls with source code, deep linking, SEO, enhanced data support, and advanced accessibility functions.

When it comes to online video websites, YouTube may lead the pack in terms of traffic with its user-generated content, but Hulu is definitely the place to go for high quality programming from the largest studios and networks in the business. In just two years, the NBC/News Corp joint venture has practically sent Joost into oblivion and significantly altered the Internet TV viewing landscape.


As the site’s popularity skyrocketed, however, users have been clamoring for a way to get it out of the browser and into the living room – Boxee was the perfect solution to this but Hulu was persistent in blocking the software at the request of the content providers. In an interesting turn of events, they are now releasing their own standalone application, promising a “lean-back viewing experience” delivered straight to your computer. Hulu Desktop is available on Windows and Mac – but not on Linux – and can be controlled not just via a mouse and keyboard, but also through any Apple or Windows Media Center remote.

Additionally the company has launched a new Labs section today, where you’ll find stuff like a video panel designer to create embeddable widgets for Hulu, as well as new recommendations and time-based browsing tools.

Depending on your perspective, DRM is a necessary evil, an unnecessary annoyance or the last bastion of hope for modern software development. Regardless of which way you view it, whether or not it actually accomplishes what it intends to is debatable. It is precisely this question which has led to a study in the UK on DRM, with the goal of determining the effectiveness of these anti-counterfeiting measures.

DRM doesn't come cheap, so developers likely want some assurance that the headaches and PR issues it can cause are at least offset by a drop in piracy rates. The study, which polled people in the industry for several years, unsurprisingly concluded that any DRM technology ultimately will work to restrict legal use of content. The reason seems obvious; it's impossible to predict in advance all the potential legal uses of software, so invariably some are bound to find themselves cut off.

The study covered some grey areas of copy protection, such as users wanting to duplicate or rip their own content. While you may be suspicious of claims that DRM inherently breeds piracy, as there are too many factors to make such a statement, the study did come to one conclusion that many can agree with. As a whole, DRM technology doesn't appear to be doing anything to stop piracy. Of course, many of us could have told them that without spending years studying it.

Android enthusiasts, developers or just plain curious sorts might find this interesting. Canonical is working on an execution environment for Android software to run inside an Ubuntu system, bringing all its applications to the desktop. The increasingly-popular mobile platform has seen a lot of speculation regarding its future, including plans to bring it to netbooks or other non-phone devices, and this seems like a firm step in that direction.


Eventually Canonical plans to publish the environment, along with its corresponding source code, for any Linux user to tinker with it. At such an early stage, they've produced little to note, but it makes you wonder if there are other developers working on similar projects behind closed doors. With the line between smartphones and desktops getting thinner, and given the open nature of Android, I can imagine a lot of people would find this interesting. Any increased awareness in Android is going to be beneficial from Google's perspective, and this is doubly true since the launch of their app store, which will need a lot of developer support to become strong.

Intel has issued a public beta of Moblin 2.0, its Linux operating system distribution designed and tuned specifically for Atom-powered devices such as netbooks and low cost desktop PCs. The new release includes a revamped user interface, built from the ground up using the Clutter Animation Framework, and an “m_zone” home page which provides instant access to various services.

The toolbar and panels across the top of the screen has been designed to easily integrate internet access through a Mozilla browser, as well as to social networks, synchronized calendars, tasks, appointments and media content. Besides putting a prettier face on Linux, the 2.0 version of Moblin also puts a strong focus on three areas, according to Intel: fast boot, a small footprint, and optimal battery life.

The release is intended for testing and feedback is welcome through bugzilla for those who which to give the 680MB beta a try. A detailed user guide is available online as well as a promotional video of the operating system in action after the jump. Moblin 2.0 for netbooks will be followed up next year with a MID version that focuses on the successor to Atom, Intel's Moorestown CPU, and will offer support for VoIP connectivity.

One of the greatest strengths of Firefox is its powerful extension system, which gives third-party developers the ability to expand the browser's capabilities. Although it is often blamed for slowing browser performance as well, this extensibility delivers a lot of value to Firefox users. Mozilla is looking to build on this particular strength with the introduction of Jetpack, a new API designed to make Firefox add-ons easier to code and deploy.

The general idea for Jetpack is to allow users to create add-ons using technologies they already know, such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript, thus lowering barriers to would-be developers. It also enables developers to create code packages that can be toggled on and off without the end user having to restart their browser and should address performance concerns by resulting in more lightweight extensions. This comes as somewhat of a preemptive move against Google, which has downplayed add-ons over performance with its Chrome browser.

Currently in its 0.1 version, Jetpack is still “unpolished, unfinished, and still highly prototyped” according to its developers, who expect to complete a 1.0 release within the next six months. You can try out a few code samples, and read more about the new API, on the Jetpack developer site.

After being granted two extensions to defend itself against anti-trust allegations in Europe, regarding the bundling of Internet Explorer in Windows, Microsoft has now canceled its oral hearing scheduled for the start of June because the right EU people weren’t going to be around. Apparently, the hearing was to clash with a global antitrust conference in Zurich which would be the preferred destination for many influential regulators.

The regulators attendance was important, since the commission typically consults with them before issuing sanctions and fines, but Microsoft was nevertheless denied when it tried to get its hearing moved to accommodate these observers and advisers. As a result the hearing has been canceled and the commission will instead reach its decision based purely on written statements from Microsoft and its adversaries.

This has unsurprisingly led to charges that Microsoft pulled out because it can’t cope with questions that Opera, Google, and Mozilla might ask. If Microsoft indeed abused its market position as Opera claims, however, one could argue that their efforts were not all that successful in Europe.

Although Microsoft's browser across all versions still leads in overall usage, Firefox 3 is currently the single market leader in that region, with a 35 percent share versus 34 percent for IE7, and even Google’s Chrome has gained a respectable following less than a year after its debut. I’m sure Opera has its own merits, but perhaps they should rethink their strategy rather than force its way into Windows through an anti-trust ruling.

Testing of Microsoft’s Office 2010 suite wasn’t supposed to start until July and on an invite-only basis, but in what's become a pretty common pattern, leaked copies of the still unfinished software have already trickled onto a number of torrent sites. Both the 32- and 64-bit editions of the application suite were available for download earlier than planned, mirroring Windows 7, which has had all major development milestones as well as numerous interim builds leaked ahead of the official releases.


It’s not known if the leaked version, build 14.0.4006.1010, is the same that Microsoft will begin delivering to select testers at the start of July. Among the notable changes in Office 2010 are a revamped Outlook e-mail client that will feature the "ribbon" interface, and the simultaneous availability of new, browser-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.

If you are interested in trying the leaked version, a quick look at your favorite torrent site should yield some results – know that this is not exactly considered legal, though, and be sure to double check your source to avoid any potential Trojan infections.

The next major release of Firefox is inching closer to reality. After a lengthy beta period, Mike Beltzner, director of Firefox development at Mozilla has announced that the company is “setting an aggressive code freeze target” for next Wednesday and hopes to have the release candidate version of the browser out to testers by the first week of June – if they aren’t hit by any show-stopping bugs between now and then.

He added that the Firefox team was down to 52 code blockers and 12 non-code blockers, and said progress had been “great”. Among the new features in Firefox 3.5 are the enhanced JavaScript rendering engine to speed up web apps, an improved session restore tool, some HTML 5 support and a private browsing mode.

In related news, Mozilla has also launched the Alpha 1 version of its Firefox browser for Windows Mobile 6 – dubbed Fennec. This major release improves memory behavior, moves the user interface to a CSS-based solution that'll make resolution independence easier, and adds support for add-ons. If you'd like to give it a try, you can download the cab file and make sure to read the release notes here.

Ever since the release of their DVD copying program, Real has faced numerous legal issues at the hands of the MPAA and the DVD CCA. Though the company has taken extensive measures to ensure their copying software wasn't used for piracy, linking content duplicated to people who owned it, it wasn't enough to prevent them from being sued. Originally trying to defend their software, their strategy has changed. Now, they have gone on the offensive, filing a lawsuit against the MPAA and the DVD CCA.

Real is accusing both groups of violating antitrust laws by colluding together on trying to prevent the fair-use copying of DVDs. It may not seem like a big deal at first, but it strikes at the heart of many content-duplication disputes over the years: Do users have the right to backup their purchased content? In any case, Real is asking for an injunction on the actions of the MPAA/DVD CCA, as well as to receive monetary compensation for lost revenue. This is primarily due to the fact that sales of RealDVD were forcibly halted due to an injunction in 2008.

Though it started out as just another lawsuit between corporations, the impact this one may have on other “fair use” cases cannot be overlooked.