Mozilla delivers latest Firefox 4 beta

Computerworld - Mozilla today shipped Firefox 4 Beta 9, perhaps the last it will release before it pushes toward a final version now planned to ship by the end of February.

The newest beta includes fewer major changes than its Dec. 22 predecessor, with just a pair of performance improvements -- one to the code that handles the browser's bookmarks and history list -- called out by Mozilla.

According to Mozilla, Beta 9 sports 662 bug fixes or changes, less than half of the 1,400 it made in Beta 8, which launched a little over three weeks ago.

Although Mozilla picked up the pace between Beta 8 and 9 -- the interval between Beta 7 and 8 was six weeks -- the company is pushing developers to get the code in shape for a "release candidate," the last major milestone before the browser is deemed good enough to officially ship.

Earlier this week, Mozilla's head of platform engineering said there were still too many "hard blocker" bugs -- flaws that would prevent Firefox 4 from final release -- and urged developers to "press hard" toward a February finish line.

In a follow-up blog post Thursday, Johnathan Nightingale, the director of Firefox development, called on all programmers to reevaluate their blocking bugs.

Saying that developers must take a "hard look at our blocker list," Nightingale added that, "at this point, very few bugs are worth holding back that much awesome."

Nightingale said that as of Thursday, 143 hard blocker bugs remained, and detailed which flaws fit into the category. "A hard blocker is a failure of a core part of our release criteria, e.g. a crash, a memory leak, a performance hit, a security issue, a [user interface] breakage that can't be recovered from, an incompatibility we can't stomach," he said.

It's unclear if Mozilla will do a 10th beta.
Although Firefox Beta 10 remains on a still-current schedule that shows on Mozilla's Web site, on Monday Damon Sicore, who leads the company's engineering group, hinted that Beta 9 might be the last.
"If we can't get [bugs] to zero in reasonable time, we'll repeat [a tenth beta]," he said on a Firefox developers mailing list.

By Mozilla's schedule, Beta 9 was nearly a month late.
After Firefox wraps up its beta cycle, Mozilla will issue at least one release candidate to shake out any final bugs. The schedule does not show a target ship date for the release candidate.
Nightingale said that he wanted to see a release candidate soon.

"Firefox 4 is good for the Web, good for our users, and puts the heat on other vendors to up their own game," he said in his blog post yesterday. "We need to ship it ASAP -- - we want release candidates in weeks, not months."

Mozilla's biggest rival is also nearing release candidate on its next browser. According to several online sources, Microsoft will deliver the release candidate of Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) later this month, perhaps on
Jan. 28.

Microsoft has said it will ship the final edition of IE9 before the end of March.
Firefox currently accounts for 22.8% of all browsers used worldwide, a drop of two percentage points since its peak in November 2009. Internet Explorer's 57.1% share during December 2010 was 5.6 percentage points lower than the same time the year before.

Firefor 4 Beta 9 can be downloaded for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux from Mozilla's site.

Report: Future iPad, iPhone to have Qualcomm chips

Apple is reportedly switching up the wireless chipset used in future versions of both the iPad and iPhone.

Is Apple moving to a new wireless chipset supplier for the next iPad and iPhone?
An unnamed but "reliable" source is quoted by Engadget today saying that Apple is going to ditch the current Infineon chipsets used in both devices and move to Qualcomm instead. The report seems entirely plausible.
Verizon already let it slip that it's going to have an iPad that runs on its network. It's very likely that will be for its CDMA network, and not LTE. The current iPad model only works on GSM networks. Apple probably doesn't want to have to make two different iPads the way it's currently making two different models of iPhone (one with GSM chips for AT&T et al., and one with CDMA for Verizon and perhaps other future carrier partners), so switching to a chipset that allows the device to connect to both networks would be smart. Qualcomm has that, or is going to, very soon.

It's long been rumored Apple would eventually start shipping a dual-mode iPhone--a report that the iPhone 5 would work on GSM and CDMA networks hit back in October--so going that way with both of its flagship mobile products makes a lot of sense.

Engadget also notes that while the next iPad won't have a USB port, it will have an SD card slot, and has some images of what it would look like.

Latest Electronic Gadgets for 2011

Electronic gadgets are available in abundance in the market.

 Every year we have certain new inventions, new gadgets developed and introduced. This year, the International Consumer Electronics Show begun from January 6 to January 9 in Las Vegas gives us glimpses of the latest tech gadgets of many well-known companies, such as Samsung, Asus, Apple, Sony… Here are some of the best gadgets coming out.

1. Tablet Frenzy.

Thanks to the success of the iPad, tablets will be the highest-selling consumer electronic devices of the year, Scarsella said, with 40 to 80 new models being introduced at CES. "Apple has had so much success with the original iPad, and consumers want electronics," he said.

The new Apple iPad 2 is expected to be released between the end of February and early April, and should have two cameras, an SD card slot, HDMI, and will be smaller, he said. Samsung's Galaxy tablet is the only early competition for the iPad, but others such as Motorola, Asus, Blackberry, HP, HTC, Dell and LG are coming and many will offer new features such as high resolution displays, USB ports and carrier subsidies. Even the bargain TV manufacturer Vizeo is getting into the tablet game, Scarsella said.

2. iPhone.

The white iPhone 4 is scheduled to be released in the spring, and Verizon is expected to add the iPhone to its network with CDMA technology to improve call quality and give iPhone owners a better option than AT&T. To add to that, the iPhone 5 is expected to be released in June, Scarsella said. Wow, cool gadgets!

3. Windows 7 Phone.

These phones came out in 2010, but more models are coming out, especially if sales of current versions are good, Scarsella said. Success will depend on size and quality of apps in their new app market and new hardware across carriers in the U.S., he said.

4. Internet TV/Streaming Media.

Either via TV or set top box the Internet is coming back to the living room, according to Scarsella. TVs will have fully-integrated apps, features, and Web. "Pretty much TVs are going to have all of the capabilities of a smartphone, but on your wall," he said. Expect new set-top boxes with Google TV, and other boxes with Android to hit the market in 2011.

Remember the tech gadgets 3-D TV? It was a hot topic at CES last year, but paying more than $100 for a pair of clunky glasses didn't really catch on. Manufacturers got the message and this year are coming out with glasses-free 3-D TVs and computer monitors, Scarsella said.

5. Android Phones.

This will be the biggest shaker for 2011, Scarsella said, with the new dual-core powered phones and Android 3.0 Gingerbread for tablets. Such phones are making portable gaming systems such as the Sony PSP obsolete.

6. Cloud Gaming.

While smartphones make gaming cheap -- a few dollars instead of $30 for a game -- the new trend of cloud gaming is picking up fast among gamers, Scarsella said. You don't have to buy expensive hardware or software because the games are hosted on servers and will give you instant access to tons of titles. Services such as OnLive and Gaikai will steal some spotlight from the new electronic gadgets Kinect and PS Move in 2011.