After a long wait through betas and release candidates, Mozilla has announced the release of Firefox 3.5 earlier this morning.
For the release today, June 30, is around one year after the release of version 3.0 and six months after the originally planned release of a new version. It was formerly to be named as 3.1. But as more functionality and features grew, the .1 wasn’t enough for all the updates to be expressed.
The increase in scope represented by TraceMonkey and Private Browsing, plus the sheer volume of work that’s gone into everything from video and layout to places and the plugin service make it a larger increment than we believe is reasonable to label 3.1.
-Mozilla’s engineering vice president Mike Shaver
Major features in 3.5 include:
- TraceMonkey Javascript engine which Mozilla says is faster than SpiderMoney in 3.0
- Private browsing mode, to bring a common feature between Apple, Microsoft, and Google
- Browsing based on your location
- Support for HTML 5
You can grab the new version from their website here.
The iPhone hackers, known as the Dev Team, has released Ultrasn0w a few minutes ago.
Ultrasn0w is a little program installed through Cydia or Icy (via jailbroken iPhones) which will unlock the iPhone 3G for use on any GSM network. It is the successor of the previous yellowsn0w which worked on previous basebands and firmwares. For the T-Mobile users, the carrier is happily supporting the iPhone since they make up quite a large user base.
Last week, the Dev Team released the iPhone OS 3.0 jailbreak called redsn0w which will probably be incorporated into QuickPwn 3.0 to make it more user friendly along with custom boot logos. QuickPwn.com is now concentrating on releasing QuickPwn before Friday this week (hopefully earlier). However, the Dev Team and QuickPwn.com are not affiliated with each other.
To install Ultrasn0w:
- Please add the repo repo666.ultrasn0w.com to cydia or icy
- Search for ‘ultrasn0w’ in cydia or icy and install ultrasn0w
- Reboot your iPhone 3G
- T-Mobile USA users should disable 3G before using ultrasn0w
- Enjoy
As incomprehensible as it sounds, the Dev Team does not accept donations. “There is no paypal account associated to us, there is no way to donate to us, we do this as a hobby and don’t want to be paid and we fund all of this ourselves and it works out just fine.”
Remember kids, don’t upgrade to the next iPhone firmware without the OK from the Dev Team.
This year has been packed full of smartphone releases already and we are only half way through 2009.
T-Mobile USA is keeping up with the competition with its latest Google Android device, myTouch, that will be announced later today. Last fall, they have released the world’s first Google Android phone known as the G1. According to T-Mobile, the G1 has sold more than 1 million units.
The T-Mobile myTouch is the carrier customized version of the HTC Magic that has already shipped in parts of Europe, Asia, and Canada.
Key features include:
- 3.2-inch 480 x 320 touchscreen
- Portrait and landscape virtual keyboard (no physical keyboard)
- Built-in support for T-Mobile’s 3G (HSDPA), Edge, and WiFi
- 3.2 megapixel camera
- Multi-tasking capabilities
- GPS capabilities
- Exchange support
- Android 1.5
Along with other great specs, this is loaded with a Qualcomm 528 MHz processor and 192 MB of RAM, and so should not have a problem multitasking at all.
To stand out against other great smart phone lies in personalization, says T-Mobile VP Andrew Sherrard. “No two myTouch devices will be alike, they will be as unique as the users that own them.” To do this, T-Mobile has made their own enhancements to the hardware and software.
Consumers will have the chance to completely customize their myTouch device with various Android applicatioons. In retail stores, T-Mobile sales representatives will assist customers in setting up and personalizing their device before they leave.
Sadly, you will have to wait a while to get your hands on this. T-Mobile will start taking preorders from current customers starting July 8 for $199.99 on a two-year contract. These orders will shipping in late July with full national availability in early August in three flavors of black, white, and “merlot.”
The RIAA has won another case of copyright infringement against a Jammie Thomas-Rasset for willfully infringing on 24 copyrights held by four major record labels at a massive $1.92 million in “damages.”
This was the outcome of the retrial, as the original decision was to award the RIAA with $9,250 per song. According to Ars Technica, the jury felt that Thomas-Rasset was a liar and thus handed down the harsh penalty.
The RIAA was able to clearly identify the MAC address of both her cable modem and Ethernet card, her username, and noted that she recently received a hard drive replacement. Jammie was unable to sway the jurors from this amount of evidence, leaving them unconvinced of her innocense. However, she didn’t plan on paying the RIAA. “They did their job… I’m not going to hold it against them,” she said. “Good luck trying to get it from me… it’s like squeezing blood from a turnip.”
“So Dante Stallworth pays $200,000 for driving drunk, speeding, and killing a man plus he gets 30 days in jail. This girl downloads songs and gets $2,000,000 and no days in jail. What a lovely justice system we have here. If only she had killed a human being she could have gotten off much much easier.
Something to note here that isn’t in this article is that the RIAA tried repeatedly to settle with this girl out of court for as little as $3,000. $3,000 might seem like a lot of money but the RIAA had evidence of over 1,700 songs being downloaded or shared which comes out to about $1.70 a song. The girl refused to settle out of court and took her chances in court. The RIAA didn’t hand down the judgment of $80,000 a copyright, a jury of OUR peers did. The girl and whoever was in the jury both need not reproduce.”
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had a liver transplant two months ago in Tennessee. Thankfully, he is expected to return to work by the end of June.
Jobs, who went on medical leave from Apple since January, has had medical issues relating to pancreatic cancer. The type of pancreatic cancer that Jobs has will often metastasize in other organs, particularly the liver. According to the WSJ, he will work part-time upon return to help speed up his recovery.
