Isaiah's Tech

It's been only 6 days since Firefox 3.0.9 came out and it looks like Mozilla is already working on Firefox 3.0.10. Apparently, Firefox 3.0.9 has actually been a little bit slower than its previous versions and that is something that Mozilla is currently trying to fix. Firefox 3.0.10 will bring back the good ol' speed and will also plug a couple of security holes.

Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 reportedly has a new "Recently Closed Windows entry in the History menu that will allow you to restore accidentally closed windows." This is definitely good news, since the undo closed tab option is a life-saver for me. On a side note, Opera and Google Chrome already have this feature; Internet Explorer 8, on the other hand, is terrible.

[Beta News (Firefox 3.0.10), Lifehacker (Firefox 3.5)]

If you have an SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) supported browser, you can now draw in Google Docs. So, if you're using Internet Explorer - even IE8 - you're going to have to use Firefox, Chrome, Opera or Safari. If you try to draw in Google Docs with a non-SVG supported browser (aka Internet Explorer), it will use VML (Vector Markup Language) instead, so you're not entirely out of luck. So, try out your drawings in Google Docs now! On a side note, Google Docs also implemented a "full-fledged find and replace toolbar", you can try that for yourself too.

[Mashable, Lifehacker]

I already talked about Charlie Miller getting $5,000 for his abilities to exploit Safari in mere seconds. But another person, by the name of Nils (pictured) was able to exploit Internet Explorer 8 on a Windows 7 laptop. For that, he won $5,000 and a sweet Vaio P laptop. I guess IE8 is not bulletproof just like Microsoft is claiming. Nils also continued his exploit-run on Safari and then Firefox shortly after, earning him $15,000 in one day, that is skill. Since the Opera browser is not included in the contest, Google Chrome is the only browser that hasn't been exploited yet. The contest lasts until tomorrow (Friday), so we could see it exploited before then. The contest doesn't include just browsers, it also includes exploiting a mobile handset, including one that runs on: Windows Mobile, Android, Symbian, iPhone or the BlackBerry OS. For hacking a mobile handset OS, it will earn a lucky someone $10,000. Damn.

[Engadget]

It will finally be released tomorrow at noon EST. Microsoft is using the MIX 09 conference for Web developers "as the launchpad for IE 8." In the picture, IE8 will evidently have their own private browsing mode, called "InPrivate", which is no surprise. For more details, regarding Internet Explorer 8, go to the CNet News link here.

[CNet News]

At the MIX 2009 press conference Microsoft has announced their Silverlight 3 beta. The download links are here via "next best geek" blog. This is Microsoft's competitor to Adobe's Flash and the final Silverlight 3 build is scheduled to be released before the end of 2009. More news is expected from Microsoft at this year's MIX press conference. They may possibly announce the release of their newest browser, Internet Explorer 8

[ZD Net Blogs, Beta News (Silverlight picture)]

Dell's all-in-one PC attempts are on their way and what better way to reveal them by listing a maxed out spec sheet for all you? This is, i guess, a shot at the new Apple iMacs. Well the all-in-one PC from Dell, dubbed the Studio One 19 PC has a Core 2 Quad processor, a 750GB HDD, 4GB of RAM, 6 USB ports, a 1.3MP integrated webcam, a NVIDIA GeForce 9400 graphics card and a Blu-ray player when you tune up the PC to the max settings. The 18.5-inch all-in-one PC will have a 1,366 x 768 resolution and is even capable of having a touchscreen, but whether it is capacitive or resistive is unknown for now. If you want the max settings it will cost you around $1,500 USD - $1,600 USD. On the other hand, it starts out at a base price of $699 and will be available in the US this Spring.

Google Grandcentral was finally put to good use today. Google has announced a new service called Google Voice and is available "as a preview" to Grandcentral users and to a couple of others via invitation. "The service looks a lot like Gmail for voicemail, although you don't have to be a Gmail user to use it. It lets you retrieve transcripts of your voicemail, archive and search all your sent and received SMS messages, and you can make calls directly from Google Voice's interface. The calls are free in the US, and cost a small free internationally." If you want additional information regarding Google Voice you can click on this link, for Mashable's explanation. Update on July 17th: I just got an e-mail from Google inviting me to try out Google Voice, but since I'm living in Canada I was unable to accept it. A sad, sad day for me. I hope you guys are luckier than I am!

On a side note, Internet Explorer 8 may be available on March 19 or March 20 next week. If you want to see how fast IE8 is (according to Microsoft), then click here for their [Microsoft's] PDF file report. They claim that IE8 is basically faster than Firefox and, more importantly, Google Chrome. Their tests disprove just about every other speed test out there, so i don't really know how well these so-called tests were done... Judging on my experience, I can say that Chrome is much faster than IE, but maybe that's just me. I'll give Internet Explorer 8 a try though, then a quick uninstall afterwards (most likely).

Great news. The Windows 7 RC1 (Build 7057) has been leaked on torrent sites. This is great, since the "official" Windows 7 RC1 is scheduled to be released publicly on April 10, so it's just about a month early. This is also great because my girlfriend is going to the States this weekend, so at least i'm going to spend some of my day not being bored, reformatting both my computer and laptop and installing the [illegal] Windows 7 RC1 to try it out. At least I know how I am going to spend my Saturday, but I still don't know about Sunday or Monday though. Oh yes, I also have March Break next week, so it's a whole week away from Physics work, for the most part. I'm getting the Windows 7 RC1 from my friend tomorrow, if everything goes as planned. I can't wait!

Dell Studio One 19 (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/12/dells-multi-touch-studio-one-19-pc/
Google Voice (and picture): http://mashable.com/2009/03/12/google-voice/
IE8 Release Date: http://techreport.com/discussions.x/16569
IE8 Is Fast?: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/12/ie_8_speed_test/
Windows 7 RC1 Leaked (and picture): http://lifehacker.com/5168796/new-windows-7-build-7057-hits-bittorrent

Just when you thought the browser battle had just begun, Firefox has ended it. They have a 100% market share. Besides looking at the lame graph, you you may be saying, "Hmm, there must be a catch." Well, of course there is. Seeing how this data was taken from computers being used in Antarctica.

Roger McNamee, Elevation Partners founder, had some choice words for Apple and their iPhone. He mentions that the Palm Pre will pull some of Apple iPhone's users. He mentioned that people will be able to use Sprint instead of AT&T and that will help lure those iPhone users. "'You know the beautiful thing: June 29, 2009, is the two-year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone,' McNamee noted. 'Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later.'" Obviously he is exaggerating and while i do think that the Palm Pre will attract some iPhone users, those dedicated will not make the switch. This is simply because they love Apple. They buy everything made from Apple, including: the iPhone, iPods, MacBooks. While the Palm Pre is the better device solely based on hardware, we'll see if it can step up to the challenge. I think that Apple is timing their next iPhone announcement right before the Pre launches. I think it would be fairly smart of them to do.

Now that Firefox is deciding to skip the release of 3.1, jumping Firefox to 3.5, this triggered something in my brain. Google Chrome's developer edition (2.0). Will it be the edition that will feature add-ons? I don't know, but i can say that this will be my first prediction. My prediction: Google Chrome 2.0 will have add-ons. It makes sense, at least to me. A big new update that will feature add-ons and themes. Seeing how long Google takes to update their stuff, it seems about right. Google Chrome currently has their stable version, their beta version and their developer version. I can't wait for the release of add-ons. You can change your Chrome theme using Xchrome, but the themes are limited and unofficial.

Microsoft has now confirmed that you will be able to turn off practically every "major" feature in Windows 7. With the newest build (7048) you can turn off every major feature, including Internet Explorer 8. Hilarious stuff, that's definitely the first thing i'm taking off. Could this be a sign of Microsoft giving up on their own browser? Hmm, i just thought i'd put it out there. With Firefox now in second place (around 24%) behind the most widely used browser, Internet Explorer 7 (about 40% market share), it's only a matter of time until one browser steps up and prevails against Internet Explorer. Or could Microsoft be teaming up with another browser to make an ultimate browser? Okay, the last point was pretty ridiculous, but maybe Microsoft is really starting to wake up and see that their browser just can't compete anymore.

Firefox's 100% Market Share (and chart): http://mashable.com/2009/03/06/firefox-antarctica/
Pre Going To Lure Away iPhone Users (and picture): http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/03/06/pre.may.lure.iphone.users/
Google Chrome picture: http://flickr.com/photos/cbd_akira/2823841098/
Turn IE8 Off With Windows 7 (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5165495/you-can-turn-off-every-major-windows-feature-in-windows-7

With the release of the Safari 4 Beta yesterday, it was time for some new speed tests. I showed you yesterday that the Safari 4 Beta is the fastest browser, but that was not including betas. So the 6 betas that went head-to-head in this battle, from fastest to slowest, is: Chrome 2.0, Firefox 3.1 Beta 2, Safari 4, Opera 10 Alpha, Safari 3.2.2 [not a beta], and Internet Explorer 8 RC 1. Chrome comes out on top again and IE comes in at last place which isn't surprising.

Rumour has it that Windows 7 will ship with computers starting in September of this year. This is good news because i may be purchasing a new laptop before i go to University or i could possibly just wait for Android (Google's OS). This is not confirmed yet, but this early release would be good for all Windows users because Vista is just terrible. Windows 7 fixes most (if not all) of the flaws in Vista. I praise Windows 7 as much as i do Google Chrome, so it's a good OS. I'm looking forward to the release. I just hope that Microsoft doesn't rush the OS. If they need to, then they should take their time and not make something half-assed like Vista.

The 16943 TV is a concept. It will be able to play your widescreen needs one way and for your fullscreen viewing it would show it the other way. You should be able to picture what i am talking about, by looking at the picture. Although, this does solve the problems of the nasty ol' black bars, this would result in one large black bar. Since this is a concept, it's actually not in current development and also might not ever be. But, i guess i might as well pitch in to what i think should be implemented in this concept, if it were to ever be created. You could implement widgets with Internet connectivity into this TV. The widgets would fill in the black bars that you will get in either the right side or the bottom of the TV when you are on different modes (widescreen or fullscreen). The 16943 TV looks like a puzzle piece to me, now that i look at it.

On March 20, Japan will be receiving 3 new Nintendo DSi colours: pink, metallic blue and lime green. These models are going to be priced at ¥18,900 ($195 USD). It's no surprise that these 3 colours will be hitting Japan-only. Damn you Asia!

I talked yesterday about Sony's UMD-less PSP 2 rumours. Apparently, it's real. This is not confirmed, but that's what is being said. David Perry, chief creative officer at Acclaim, has mentioned that he's been in contact with a developer and that Sony already has the PSP 2 prototype available. It'll be interesting to see how this works out. True or false? What do you think?

Browser Beta Battles (and chart): http://www.ginside.com/2009/2979/google-chrome-apple-safari-beta4/
Windows 7 In September? (and picture): http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/02/25/compal.on.win.7.in.sept/
16943 TV (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5160095/16943-tv-is-filled-by-both-widescreen-and-full-screen-video
3 New Nintendo DSi Colours (and picture): http://kotaku.com/5159971/a-closer-look-at-the-new-dsi-colors
Japan Gets 3 New DSi Colours: http://kotaku.com/5159936/japan-is-getting-three-new-dsi-colors
PSP 2 Is Real!?: http://kotaku.com/5160320/perry-psp-2-is-real-could-hit-this-fall

You can now customize the colours in Gmail to however you like, for the most part. The themes you can make now are pretty plain and ugly. But, i'm sure that Google is just trying out the new customizable themes. Knowing Google, you will be able to further customize your Gmail layout later on. So, i guess this customization is in beta, just like Gmail still is. I won't be changing my Gmail layout because i like the themes they already have.

The Blackberry Niagara is on its way. There is no confirmed date, but rumours are saying that it will be available in May of this year. The Niagara looks good, but i am not attracted to the rear of the phone. Boy Genius says that "you can definitely think of it as a cross between the Bold and the Curve 8900. It's bigger than the Curve, but smaller than the Bold." The phone itself is said to be part of the "large screen family" like the Bold. It will also have the standard QWERTY keyboard, a 480 x 360 resolution screen (again, similar to the Bold), aGPS, a 3.2MP camera and has a 624MHz Qualcomm MSM7600 processor.

Today for lunch, i went to ashlee's place, so it was me, her and Nikki. Nikki mentioned that since Chrome was out of beta (She thought Chrome was still in beta, cause she got it confused with Windows 7, LOL), she's going to be making the switch. Chrome is just that fast. My Firefox takes forever to open up nowadays and Chrome pops up, just about, instantly. Anyways, we're not talking about Chrome or Firefox in this post though. I'm going to continue my Internet Explorer bashing. Just how good is Internet Explorer 8? Well, it may have improved speed-wise, but they have an incompatibility list. These are sites that don't render correctly, meaning they don't load the way they are meant to. For a full list go to this link, via ZD Net. Some notables are: google.com, microsoft.com, yahoo.com, live.com, wikipedia.org, youtube.com, gizmodo.com, kotaku.com. Wow, i know! But, just in case you wanted to know just how many sites show up on this "incompatibility list" - it's a grand total of 2,400 major sites. Gotta love Internet Explorer!

Capcom will be revealing a trailer for a new game that they are going to be releasing. "The announcement will apparently come in the form of a trailer available though Xbox LIVE Marketplace on the evening of February 23 (Japan Time)." Other details are unknown, for the time being. It'll be exciting to see what game it will be. Any guesses?

At MWC this year, Motorola has yet to unleash anything that catches the consumer's eyes. Even Sony Ericsson managed to create some buzz with their Idou (See two videos here of the Idou's new interface, via Gizmodo) Anyways, here's a look at the best Motorola thing i've seen so far. The Motorola ZN 300. It still looks like junk, but this could be the reason why Motorola is going down the drain. This phone is packed with a 3MP camera, runs Linux and has Opera Mini as the default browser.

Customize Gmail Themes (and picture): http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/choose-your-own-theme-colors.html
Blackberry Niagara (and picture): http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/02/19/upcoming-verizon-news-blackberry-niagara-hub-updates-netbooks-apex/
IE 8's Incompatible Sites (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5156518/internet-explorer-8s-incompatability-list-is-really-sad
Capcom Announcing New Game (and picture): http://kotaku.com/5156303/capcom-announcing-new-game-on-xbox-live-next-monday
Motorola ZN 300 (and picture): http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Motorolas_ZN_300_Images_Leaked/551-99165-893.html

After being scheduled to release on February 20, The Sims 3 will now hit PCs on June 2. The non-PC versions will be getting The Sims 3 after June 2, but those dates were not mentioned.

Panasonic's Z1 plasmas with WirelessHD will be hitting the Japan market on April 20. The Z1 is just 1-inch thick, comes with YouTube and has a 40,000:1 contrast ratio. These displays were mentioned at CES. There is no US ship date or price yet, but there are the Japan price tags. The 3 models: a 54-inch, a 50-inch and a 46-inch will go for retail prices of $7,835 USD, $6,715 USD and $6,156 USD, repectively. That's quite expensive, but with WirelessHD, how could you go wrong?

So, the new Internet Explorer 8 RC 1 is, reportedly, catching up to Google Chrome's market share. They are both currently hovering around the 1% mark. "These results aren't necessarily surprising, considering that web developers [all over the world] are likely downloading IE8 to get their sites up to spec before users start switching from IE7 en masse." This actually surprises me because i thought that IE8's market share would be higher than Chrome's. With so many people using Internet Explorer, it shocks me that more people haven't made the switch, especially those still using IE6.

Starting today, Gmail users will finally get Folders. Gmail currently uses Labels to sort and organize your different e-mails. Labels is a really unique feature and may be quite confusing for new Gmail users to use. My bet is that they decided to add Folders because of the migration from other popular e-mail services, such as Hotmail. Those users wouldn't know how to sort their e-mails because they are so used to using Folders over Gmail's Labels. Some people dislike change and i used to fall into that category. But after a while, i got the hang of using Gmail's Labels. Adding Folders to Gmail would be an excellent addition and i can't wait to try it out because i've been wanting that option ever since i started using Gmail. Folders will give Gmail users even more organization, since they will be able to use Labels and Folders, simultaneously.

I've been hearing that Windows has confirmed five versions of Windows 7. But, i've also been hearing that Windows has confirmed six versions. The verdict will be that Windows has confirmed six versions, since this article on Gizmodo explains the functions of all 6 different versions. The 6 versions are: Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Ultimate.

Windows 7 Starter is the most lackluster version and you will only be able to run 3 windows at once. Starter will be the go-to version for emerging markets. It's the version that will be used the least for us; it sounds completely pointless to me.

Windows 7 Home Basic will also be targeting the emerging markets and lacks many important features.

Windows 7 Home Premium will be the standard OS and will have all of the "cool features." This includes: Aero Peek and Media Center, just to name a few. It will also have multi-touch capability. Like i said, it's the standard version of Windows 7.

Windows 7 Professional "has everything that Home Premium does, but with business and 'enthusiast' features like file encryption, location-aware printing and advanced backup."

Windows 7 Enterprise has "everything that Professional does, but with a few additions like BitLocker full-disk encryption and direct access capability, so you don't have [to] go through a VPN for remote access."

Windows 7 Ultimate. We all knew that there would be an Ultimate version of Windows 7. Windows 7 Ultimate will have every feature of Windows 7 Enterprise plus some more "advanced features." Unfortunately, Windows 7 Ultimate will have a limited availibility.

There you have it, all six Windows 7 versions explained for you. This was quite a long post, thanks to Windows 7 taking up most of the room. Time to finally start my homework because i have quite a bit to do.

The Sims 3 Release Date (and picture): http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3172595
Panasonic Z1 Plasmas With WirelessHD (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/03/panasonic-z1-plasmas-bring-wirelesshd-to-japan-first/
IE8 Catching Up To Chrome's Market Share (and picture): http://lifehacker.com/5145514/internet-explorer-8-already-showing-stiff-competition-for-chrome
Gmail Adding Folders: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/02/gmail-adds-folders-by-improving-label.html
Windows 7 Versions Explanation: http://i.gizmodo.com/5145366/all-the-flavors-of-windows-7-explained
Windows 7 Versions List: http://www.pcworld.com/article/158870/Microsoft_Announces_Six_Windows_7_Editions.html?tk=rss_news

So, ever since the release of Google Chrome out of it's beta status, the browser has now passed the IE 8 beta on the market share. Basically, this means that more people are using Google Chrome compared to Internet Explorer Beta 8. On the graph, the blue represents Google Chrome and the red represents IE 8. It's been a couple of days that Google Chrome has been out of it's beta status and yet it's still managing to beat IE 8. Epic lolz all across the board. By, next year i hope that Google Chrome will be around the same market share as Firefox is right now. With Chrome being the fastest browser out right now and when they add in their extensions and scripts, i'm sure it will show it's true colours. I hope they also come out with different themes for Chrome too, it's looking kind of plain. It's not really a huge factor for me, but it was brought up by someone messaging me over msn. For some reason, i'm still getting some tabs crashing on my laptop running Chrome, but on my desktop, everything seems to run perfectly fine. Maybe it's because my laptop is so fail (MDG). Anyways, Google Chrome, coming to a desktop near you.

Here goes... the original reason why i wanted to start this new post in this blog. About, of course, World of Warcraft. I just finished PvP'ing and realized why i quit in the first place. The damage scaling and balance issues are really visible. Maybe, i'm just terrible at using a Death Knight, but going from 15,400 hp to 0 hp, in about 2 seconds is really pissing me off. Some pally hit me for 7.6k without wings. The only person that's really going to understand this post fully is Daniel, but whatever. I need to seriously let this out. I want to go back on the paladin, but, argh, that just pissed me off so much, seriously. I wish i had my priest back, so that i could really judge for myself with at least some decency. I miss my priest because i fail as a DK. Hopefully, i'll get that pally to 80 though, cause i think they're pretty OP. Anyways, there goes my frustrations, i'm out. On a good note, i did own a Gnome so hard. I war stomped him and crit him like 5 times in a row and blew pretty much all of my cooldowns. Maybe, i'll give it another go right now, but still. Damn game, putting me in a bad mood.

Google Chrome (and picture): http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/40575/113/