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Mozilla on Monday released Firefox 3.1 Beta 2, an update to its popular Internet browser.

The company characterizes the software as a preview release for developer testing. It's available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux in 54 languages.

The updated browser includes the New Private Browsing Mode, which allows users to surf the Web without leaving locally stored records of online activities. A number of news organizations, including InformationWeek, have referred to this as "Porn Mode," named so because it's widely believed that this feature is used for surfing porn sites.

In a comment posted on an article last month about the development of this release, Mike Beltzner, director of Firefox at Mozilla, dismissed that term. "At this point, I think the only people who are commonly referring to this feature as 'Porn Mode' are headline writers looking to attract attention," he wrote.

Mozilla suggests that Private Browsing Mode is "perfect for online holiday shopping!"

Replying to an e-mail to confirm that he had in fact authored that comment, Beltzner said he was frustrated with the term "Porn Mode" and that he believes it marginalizes useful cases for browsing without leaving local tracks.

Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 also features enhancements to the Clear Private Data tool, which helps make it easier to remove data about online activities that occurred when Private Browsing Mode wasn't turned on.

The new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine has been turned on, promising a substantial speed improvement when browsing any site that uses JavaScript. Mozilla claims that the Gecko rendering engine has been improved too.

Firefox reached a major milestone last month when it broke the 20% mark for worldwide market share, based on Net Applications data. At the same time, it faces renewed competition from Apple, Google (NSDQ: GOOG), and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), which all see their respective browsers -- Safari, Chrome, and Internet Explorer -- as critical components of their software stacks.

The final version of Firefox 3.1 is expected next year.

Apple on Wednesday released a number of firmware updates to fix stability problems with the latest MacBook computers.

The updates come in pairs that are each for the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air introduced in October.

One update in the pair fixes "several issues to improve the stability" of the computers, Apple said. The other "improves the sensing and accuracy" of the power adapter and battery charge indicator lights.

The fixes can be installed automatically through Apple's Software Update service, which downloads and installs updates from the Web. However, for cases where the updates have to be installed manually, Apple has posted instructions on its support site. Apple also has a download page for all six updates, as well as a page for general information.

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs unveiled the lighter aluminum MacBooks in time for the holiday shopping season. The aluminum casing, common with the MacBook Pro, was introduced for the first time in the less-expensive MacBook line

InformationWeek

In 2005 Intel revealed its 65-nm manufacturing process, then 45-nm in 2007. Today, in keeping with its "tick-tock" strategy, Intel is announcing a further shrinkage to its manufacturing process as it ends the development phase for 32-nm chip circuitry. That puts the chips on a production schedule for Q4 2009 -- interesting as Intel's rumored 32-nm Medfield chip wasn't expected until the first half of 2010. According to Intel, the new chips incorporate second-generation high-k + metal gate technology with transistors that switch 22% faster than its current 45-nm Penryn chips. Why should you care? Well, the smaller chips are cheaper to manufacture which should translate to consumer savings. They also require less power than Intel's notoriously power-friendly Atom-class chips. As an interesting side note, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Intel has also disclosed a variant of its 45-nm process (the Lincroft-based Pineview we presume) "that is tailored to create chips for portable computing devices that require low power consumption." Uh, those wouldn't be targeting ARM by any chance would they Intel? Wink wink, nudge nudge.

Equipped with 192 CUDA parallel computing cores, the Quadro FX 4800 delivers a 2X performance increase over previous generations of ultra-high-end graphics cards.

The Quadro FX 4800 has the capacity to process large textures and frames in real time while providing fill rates of 38 billion texels per second and geometry performance of 300 million triangles per second.

Other features included a single dual-link digital display connector for ultra-high resolution panels of up to 3840 x 2400 at 24Hz, a 128-bit precision graphic pipeline and 32x FSAA for better image clarity and quality.

The NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 is available today and has a MSRP of $1,999 USD

For more info, check out this link which will take you directly to NVIDIA…

NVIDIA Quadro FX 5800

The PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV is getting a much-needed patch, according to Voodoo Extreme. Rockstar says that the patch is in the process of Microsoft certification and should be coming out soon. The press release outlines the fixes:

• A fix to the crash after legal screen that some German customers were reporting.
• Numerous improvements to the video editor: Smarter naming of videos, improved rendering quality, better fx during replays
• Fix to bowling while using certain sensitive mice
• Fix for ATI 1900 shadows
• Overall savings to memory
• Graphic improvements to particle systems and mirrors
• Multiplayer character settings are preserved
• Support for DirectInput controllers. Note: The current hack way of supporting these controllers may not work with the improved functionality.

The report also states that issues with power management software and the Rockstar Social Club have been fixed. Nvidia has released a new driver to improve performance, and ATI will be releasing Catalyst 8.12 on Wednesday as well. Though any fix is welcome, the list doesn't seem to address a few of the larger complaints from the community, like framerate and texture problems.
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