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Firefox 5: What we Know so Far

April 3, 2011 at 6:42 PM

Firefox 4 may be only a few weeks old, but Mozilla's adoption of a Chrome style rapid release schedule has led to several leaks about upcoming Firefox 5 features, which believe it or not, should be released by the end of June. Users who want to gain access to the latest preview build can download a copy directly from Mozilla, or just scroll on down for a quick overview of what you can expect to see down the road.

1.) Multi Tab Select. This will allow you to close a small group of tabs, or move a select few off the tab bar to create a new window.

2.) A Brand New Tab Page Layout.

3.) Add-ons will get standardized toolbar support.

4.) File Upload Indicator.

5.) The removal of a home button, in favor of a home tab.

6.) Built in PDF Viewer / MP3 Playback decoder.

7.) Taskbar Web apps. This will allow developers to include a drop down menu from the browser tab to allow for easier site navigation.

8.) Integrated Identity Management for easy website sign in.

9.) Social Sharing from the URL bar to Facebook, Twitter, and possibly others such as Reddit, and Digg.

Some of these features might be amended or removed as the weeks move on, but given how soon they are expected to push out a final release, it's very likely we are looking at a fairly complete list.

(Image Credit: conceivablytech.com)

Analysts Claim Sandy Bridge Sales Are Slower Than Expected – Is The Chipset Flaw To Blame?

April 3, 2011 at 3:35 PM

Our very own Gordon Mah Ung may have given Intel's Sandy Bridge an enthusiastic two thumbs up from a technical stand point, however it appears analysis are preparing to blame the dreaded Cougar Point chipset problem for a lack of consumer adoption. While it's difficult to find fault in the way Intel handled the problem, it's safe to say from a marketing stand point it was a train wreck that almost reached an "Antenagate" level of fervor at its peak. The company has since resumed shipments, but analysts for FBR are suggesting that the PC market hasn't seen the expected uptick in sales promised by Intel after conducting interviews with six of the top tier PC makers.

FBR's Capital Markets analyst Craig Berger claims that "While notebook demand could improve, and builds could get ratcheted up by June, our contacts suggest Intel's Sandy Bridge products are not stimulating as much end demand as expected, likely impacting AMD, too." Given that Intel has stated publically that they expect Sandy Bridge to account for up to a third of the company's 2011 revenue, we certainly hope for their sake this trend changes soon.

Let us know in the comments below if you still hold a grudge with Intel over the Cougar Point flaw, or what they could have done differently to help avoid so much negative PR. Some analysts are also speculating that tablets could be chipping away at PC sales, and that the dip has nothing to do with the Sandy Bridge flaw. Either way we won't know for sure until later in the year when PC makers start releasing quarterly results.

HTC Confirms The Flyer Will Get Honeycomb…. Eventually

April 3, 2011 at 2:41 PM

Flyer The HTC Flyer is facing some pretty stiff competition these days in the tablet space, not just from the iPad 2, but also from Motorola who got a leg up on the Android market by scoring dibs on Honeycomb. Presumably in an attempt to keep sales of the flyer from drying up completely, HTC threw the Flyer community a bone by confirming via twitter that they would indeed update their flagship tablet to Google latest tablet OS "when it's made available".

Since "when it's made available" doesn't really give us many clues in terms of an exact date, we suggest that both prospective and existing Flyer owners not hold their breath. The delay could conceivable stretch into months with recent news that Google is closely guarding the source code for Honeycomb, and of course the reality that HTC will insist on porting over Sense UI.

Either way it good to see HTC make a commitment to its customers, even though this sort of thing is pretty much expected these days if you want your tablet to be taken seriously. Is this news enough to keep the Flyer competitive? Let us know what you think after the jump

GameStop Claims It's Evolving into a Technology Company Following Impulse Acquisition

April 3, 2011 at 12:55 PM

GameStop

GameStop has been watching the declining fortunes of brick and mortar bookstores over the past several years, and I think it's safe to say the company's management knows they are headed down a similar path. The first nod towards acknowledging the problem came just two days ago with the acquisition of Stardock's Impulse PC distribution platform, along with a second company named Spawn Lab's which specializes in on-live style streaming. Yesterday GameStop's CEO Paul Raines detailed his future plans for the new acquisitions, and actually claims that he sees the retailer evolving in into a full-fledged "Technology Company".

Aside from the obvious branching out to compete with Steam and On-Live, The Dallas Morning News gathered additional details about the company's plans which include expansion into mobile, and even a GameStop branded tablet. "If we feel like we could do a better job of making a tablet, we'll do that." Since both of these are considered tentative long term goals, it remains to be seen just how serious they are about this "evolution", or if priorities will change between now and then.

Either way we find it somewhat amusing that GameStop might be forced to rely on PC Gamer's to pay the bills as next generation consoles ramp up their own proprietary online marketplace capabilities, and they find themselves being slowly squeezed out. Does the acquisition of Impulse make these guys a viable competitor?

Let us know what you think in the comments below.