Man, this is getting ridiculous! From March of this year when 4.0 was released, Mozilla has hit a new high gear and released version 8.0. Yes… 7 months, 4 major versions and Firefox is not hitting version 8 – something that took Microsoft almost a dozen years to do.

Firefox 8.0 adds the following improvements:

• Add-ons installed by third party programs are now disabled by default
• Added a one-time add-on selection dialog to manage previously installed add-ons
• Added Twitter to the search bar for select locales. Additional locale support will be added in the future
• Added a preference to load tabs on demand, improving start-up time when windows are restored
• Improved performance and memory handling when using
• Added CORS support for cross-domain textures in WebGL
• Added support for HTML5 context menus
• Added support for insertAdjacentHTML
• Improved CSS hyphen support for many languages
• Improved WebSocket support
• Fixed several stability issues
• Fixed several security issues

So far, I’ve seen improvements in memory. And knowing that it’s also more secure, I’ll rest easier. You know where to get it, but just in case: Download Firefox 8.0 from Mozilla.org

Also updated for Android too.

[ Links: Mozilla Firefox 8.0 Features ]

GM knows a good thing when they see one. This afternoon, Ed Whitacre Jr., General Motors chairman and CEO, announced during a keynote address the expansion of the Chevrolet Volt launch markets to now include Texas, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut markets. This is a very good way to get more of these highly anticipated electric car and effective game changer for GM/Chevrolet.

Today’s announcement brings the initial Volt retail markets to seven, including California, Michigan, and Washington, D.C. The retail launch in Texas and New York will begin with Austin and New York City in late 2010. The balance of Texas and New York, as well as New Jersey and Connecticut, are scheduled to begin receiving Volts in early 2011.

“We can add markets as diverse as Texas and New York because the Chevrolet Volt can handle both urban commuting and longer trips, in Austin summers and Manhattan winters,” Whitacre said. “The Volt can be your primary vehicle, giving you the freedom to drive gas-free without the stress of planning every trip around the battery’s charge level.”

The Volt is the only electric vehicle that can operate under a full range of climates and driving conditions without limitations or driver concern of being stranded by a depleted battery.

In celebration of this announcement, Chevrolet will take a “Freedom Drive” from Austin, Texas to New York to show-off their extended range – feel free to follow their progress and updates for the “Freedom Drive” on Twitter or Facebook.

[ Links: Chevrolet Volt, Chevrolet News, Chevy Volt Twitter ]

Samsung Electronics today announced the launch of Samsung Monte, Model S5620, their new full touch screen device for style-conscious mobile users.

The handset is launched with a host of multimedia features and a sleek, organic design with a sophisticated and glossy look, providing the style and performance of a high-end handset at affordable price. With a stunning design and an intuitive TouchWiz 2.0 Plus User Interface (UI), the Monte is set to become the latest must-have full touch device.

The Samsung Monte has a lot to offer to the social network savvy consumer with a suite of native social networking applications including Facebook and MySpace, allowing users to access their profiles whenever and wherever they choose. This is combined with advanced Twitter and Bebo widgets – and multi-IM capability – to provide users with the opportunity to chat in real-time via their chosen service. In addition, Monte users can enjoy full Internet browsing, with an accelerometer sensor allowing the onscreen image to automatically adjust as you rotate the phone.

And for the connected lifestyle, the Monte includes GPS supported by Google Latitude™, ensuring you know where you are – and can keep your friends updated on your location at all times. This combined with Geo-tagging, allowing users to imprint their photos with geographic tags to share their travels and experiences with friends. Other connectivity features include optional anytime, anywhere Wi-Fi connectivity, Exchange ActiveSync for access to Outlook email accounts, and Google Sync™. This allows users to simultaneously update their social networks schedules and Outlook calendar, without the hassle of accessing each application individually.

To showcase this feature rich and stylish handset, the Monte comes equipped with a 3.0-inch WQVGA LCD screen with 16:9 landscape viewing. It also boasts a 3.2-megapixel camera with many value-added features including smile shot, panorama shot, and face detection. For convenience, the phone also supports Smart Unlock and One finger zoom.

Link to the original article…

Although recently soft-announced, having the price finally announced – it’s going to sell for $199 – and seeing that they’ve expanded the Adobe Flash player to include the forthcoming 10.1 enhancements… I’m interested. The D-Link “Boxee Box”, model number D-Link DSM-380, is indeed becoming the little box that could do it all.

The Boxee Box by D-Link takes the same popular software and offers it up as a great device — the perfect companion to a high definition TV. The Boxee Box by D-Link provides access to more than just traditional TV content. It includes a huge library that spans the Internet, such as university courses, panel discussions, academic lectures, presentations, web-only videos and more from TED, Stanford, FORA.tv, Kid Mango, Next New Networks and more. Boxee also makes it easy for users to add their own favorite entertainment sources with simple RSS or XML feeds available for most online video.

In addition to video content, Boxee users can access great music from sites like Pandora, last.fm, shoutcast, and We are Hunted as well as fun photos from sites like flickr, Picasa and the Facebook.

HDMI, SDHC slot support/expandability, composite audio connectors and more all in a rather small case that allows you to take the experience of internet media to your television for a rather small price. Safe to say that I want one.

[ Links: Boxee Box by D-Link ]

Ever wanted to know what your friends are listening to, even the ones with the ultra odd taste in music that tend to be up on some bands that either could be ultra-cool… or ultra-bad? Are you also a twitter [ site here ] fan sharing way too much your wisdom and information of the day?

Well, Swift.fm [ site here ] allows you to simply share what music has your interest with your friends without having to messily locate, send via e-mail, or worse… break a few DRM rules by sharing some bought music. Instead, via your browser, you just log into Swift.fm using your twitter account, upload or link to the music that has your attention and then tweet it effortlessly and your friends can hear it via the browser. Yeah… it’s that simple.

Sign up is free, sharing your music might make you cool… and if you’re an indie band, this is a very quick way to spread your music too. Check it out.

And with users like Lindsay Lohan and Alyssa Milano – whom I’ve had a killer crush on for the last decade – it’s gaining popularity. And as one of the beta testers… I was Swift.fm’ing it before Swift.fm was cool. I’ve been introduced to some cool stuff via Swift.fm.

[ Swift.fm ] [ Swift.fm: Press Release ]