Whenever we’re asked “when is Firefox going to be released” we endeavor to answer to the best of our abilities, but the truth of the matter is that we’ll only ever ship “when it’s ready”. We have a lot of indicators that help us understand when the product is ready for release: feedback from our pre-release milestones, excitement in the community and the press, availability of compatible Add-Ons, and a large active beta community helping us ensure that the release is compatible with all the various sites on the Internet.

After more than 34 months of active development, and with the contributions of thousands, we’re proud to announce that we’re ready. It is our expectation to ship Firefox 3 this upcoming Tuesday, June 17th. Put on your party hats and get ready to download Firefox 3 — the best web browser, period.

written by Jose Castillo

Go kick the tires and light the fires of Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1, which is now available for download at the Mozilla Firefox site. The update delivers a few aesthetic changes, as well as what Mozilla is calling major security enhancements. Users should also expect increased performance and stability for applications like Google Mail. There’s an exhaustive list of known bugs to squash too, but that’s par for the course with any software.

[Firefox 3 RC1]

written by Jose Castillo

Steve Ballmer kicked up a little dirt last week when he said that Microsoft could “wake up smarter” and keep selling XP after the June 30 cutoff date if customer feedback demanded it, but as you’d expect, the company is busily trying to “clarify” that statement by saying that while it always listens to customers, XP is definitely going to die on the 30th. Well, apart from the ultraportable exception that’ll last until 2012 or so. And the backlog of licenses still in reseller’s hands. Oh, and a little company called Dell, which, as rumored, is going to take advantage of a Vista licensing loophole that allows it to sell a copy of Vista but preload XP instead. Yep, that’s the plan — Dell’s going to report a Vista sale to Microsoft, but deliver an XP box with Vista upgrade DVD to customers. (That sound you just heard was a million accountants sighing in appreciation.) The program will be available for Latitude, OptiPlex, Precision, Vostro, and XPS systems (some with a minor fee), and Dell says it’ll keep going as long as Microsoft supports the “downgrade” license option, which could be forever. Looks like June 30 just got a lot less scary for XP fans, no?

Read - Microsoft clarification of Ballmer’s comments
Read - Dell to keep selling XP

written by Jose Castillo \\ tags: dell, Microsoft, windows, windows xp, WindowsXp, xp

Happy Birthday iTunes: Five years ago iTunes went from just playing our music, to becoming the largest wallet vacuum on the internet. Apple has sold over 4 billion songs in the last five years.

Haptic iPhone rumor: Apple is reportedly in talks with the Immersion Corporation to license the company’s haptic technology for the next iPhone. Haptic technology simulates a tactile feel on flat surfaces by sending out mini vibrations. The report comes from Palluxo! who cite the usual, anonymous Apple employee, who told the site that senior executives from the companies have met to discuss an agreement.

New SDK allows backstage parties?: The latest SDK has some interesting bits inside. TUAW readers may have stumbled upon information that would allow background apps on the iPhone. That’s good news for IM clients.

Another Safari security flaw: After Apple released an updated, more secure, Safari, the security researchers wasted no time in putting the browser to the test. The latest find, a URL spoofing flaw.

written by Jose Castillo

Bootcamp 2.1 has just been released in three Windowslicious flavors: Windows XP, Vista 32 bit, and Vista 64 bit. All three updates ‘address issues and improve compatibility,’ which is always a welcome thing.

Bootcamp, in case you aren’t in the know, is Apple’s utility that allows you to dual boot your Mac: one partition boots OS X and another boots Windows (it is a little creepy, but very cool).

Windows XP users take note: Bootcamp 2.1 should be installed before you apply Windows XP Service Pack 3.

[Via TUAW and Apple]

written by Jose Castillo