Salesforce.com buying social monitoring vendor Radian6

Salesforce.com will pay more than $300 million for the company

Salesforce.com plans to buy social media monitoring vendor Radian6, whose technology tracks conversations occurring on social sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, the company said Wednesday.

Radian6's technology gives companies insights into what people are saying about their brands and products, as well as competitors. Its customers include Kodak, PepsiCo and greater than 50 percent of the Fortune 500, Salesforce.com said.

Salesforce.com will pay roughly US$276 million in cash and $50 million in stock, net of cash acquired. The transaction is expected to close by July 31.

Salesforce.com plans to meld Radian6's capabilities with its own growing array of software for sales and customer service, as well as its Chatter social networking platform. Developers will also be able to use Radian6 technology when building applications on Salesforce.com's Force.com platform, the company said.

The deal will "extend the value of all of our offerings," Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff said in a statement.

Rumors had swirled for months that Salesforce.com was planning to buy Radian6, which will be the latest in a string of Salesforce.com purchases that include online meeting and collaboration vendor DimDim and Heroku, maker of a cloud-based platform for building Ruby applications.

Amazon Beats Google to Cloud Music Service

Amazon.com announced a cloud-based music service Monday night.

Hot on the heels of rumors that Google is preparing to challenge Apple's iTunes service  with a digital music store of its own,yet Amazon has announced that it's entering the market with a cloud-based music service of its own.

"Managing a digital music collection is a bit of a mess," Amazon CEO and Founder Jeff Bezos said in an open letter to customers on the the website of Amazon on Monday. "It's possible to buy music from your phone, but then it might get stuck there. It's possible to buy music from your work computer, but then you have to remember to transfer it to your home computer...What's more, if you're not regularly backing up your music collection, you can lose it with a disk drive crash."

Amazon then purports to have found a solution with its new services: Amazon Cloud Drive and Amazon Cloud Player.

Amazon Cloud Drive is a "personal disk drive in the cloud," while Amazon Cloud Player is, well, a Web-based music player. That's right--Amazon Cloud Drive will be something like Google's rumored digital music locker, a cloud-based storage system for all of your tunes.

This is big news for both Apple and Google--Apple, because iTunes has been the market leader for...well...ever (66% of digital music sales in Dec 2010 were from iTunes), and Google, because Google has reportedly been unsuccessful in trying to make a cloud music "locker" happen.

The Cloud Drive is the big news: Not only can you upload and access your digital music collection from anywhere, but you can also upload "any other digital documents." Amazon is giving its customers an initial 5GB of free cloud storage--and purchases from the Amazon MP3 store are stored for free and do not count toward customers' storage quota.

Amazon Cloud Player is just a simple browser-based music player, but Amazon has also pushed out an Android app by the same name. Based on Amazon's recent push toward Android, it does seem like an Amazon tablet running Android is inevitable.

Common Computer Problem and Its Solutions

Problem:Computer does not start or on at all

Causes:

Normally, the computer does not start or on at all is caused by power plug problem, insufficient power coming, computer power supply faulty, bad power switch, and bad motherboard

Solutions:

1.) Power plug problem

Please check at the power plug and  ensure that it is plugged into the wall and plugged firmly into the computer/power supply

2.) Faulty power strip/surge protector or insufficient power coming from the outlet.

Plug computer into a different outlet to narrow down the problem

3.)Bad power supply

Power supply may need replacing; have it tested by a technician if possible

4.) Bad power switch

Please look for a professional technician to verify this problem.

Many power supplies have a switch on the back of them, which must be set to the on position in order for power to flow through it, to the PC.

5.) Bad motherboard

Please have a technician to verify the problem of your motherboard if you can't manage to do it yourself.

Common Computer Problem and Its Solutions

Problem: Computer Freezes or Shuts Down Suddenly

Causes:

Computer’s hardware problem and wrong hardware driver installation.

Heat issue- Over Heat to computer. There is a chance that your computer will shut down if your computer is overheating.

Solutions:

a)    Please check whether the fan in the CPU is working properly or not. If it is not running or rotating smoothly, you can replace a new fan to your CPU.

b)    You can observe whether the fan in your computer(CPU) is covered by thick dust or not, if so, please try to clean it up properly and carefully to make sure the fan can rotating very smoothly.

c)    You can use certain on screen system programs which you can use it to monitor the temperature of your computer to prevent over-heat.

 

d)    After you make sure the entire cooling fan in your computer is rotating or running smoothly, next you should check the new hardware that you have installed in to your computer.

e)    Try to remove the hardware, and check out whether the computer is restored back and working properly or not. There might be a chance the hardware maybe failure. Replace a new similar hardware and run again the operating system. 

f)     If you have already ensured the new hardware working properly or if you do not install any new hardware in recent time but the problem still remain. Now you can try to open your CPU cabinet and remove any extra RAM or extra hard disk that you are using, and then check out if your computer works properly without that particular component. 

Common Computer Problem and Its Solutions

Problem: Computer Freezes with Blue Screen

Causes:

Computer Freezes and appearing Blue Screen of death is caused by spyware or computer virus, computer hardware drive problem, power supply failure, RAM faulty, and motherboard 

failure.

Solutions:

a.) Spyware or viruses attack

Please make sure your computer’s anti spyware and antivirus software is up to date and is useful to scan your computer and remove all the spywares and viruses if any. Restart your computer and check if the problem still occurring.

b.) Driver issues

Please make sure you are using the most recent drivers for your computer hardware and make sure there is no any problem or disruption during installation. Beside, when you uninstall the hardware, please ensure that you also uninstall the driver as well. This can prevent the issue of computer freeze with blue screen happen.

c.) Corrupt registry

Uninstalling/installing software changes keys in your registry. The registry is critical for Windows to function. Software is available that will check your registry for errors,as well as fixing any error(s) that it finds. Once a registry is corrupted, it is sometimes difficult to repair back to it's original state. Sometimes a reinstall or repair of Windows is needed.

d.) RAM (Random Access Memory) Faulty

Bad memory or memory faulty will normally cause blue screen errors due to it can not reading/writing accurately to RAM. You may need to replace a new and bigger capacity RAM instead. Please have a technician to make sure and determine this if you can not identify it by yourself

e.) Power Supply Failure

Power supply may need to replace due to it can not produce enough or accurate power to the computer.

f.) Motherboard issue

Is hard to determine a bad and failure motherboard by your self due to there are so many electronic circuits in the motherboard. Please look for a computer technician to determine and ensure the problem. 

Common Computer Problem and Its Solutions

Problem:Computer Performance is slowed

Causes:

Contained a lot of unnecessary files & folders, fragmented data, spyware and virus programs, games, services, and soft wares, etc

Solutions:

a.) Un-install all unwanted software, games and delete all unnecessary files, folders,

{Start => Control Panel => Add Remove Programs}

b.) Try to run Scandisk function on all your partitions in your Hard disk.

{Start => Programs => Accessories => System Tools => Scandisk }

c.) Please do install and update your latest antivirus and antispyware software as these    virus and spyware may cause the computer operation slow down.

d.) Use Windows provided Disk Defragmenter to defrag your operating system.

{Start => Programs => Accessories => System Tools => Disk Defragmenter}

e.) Try to disable those unwanted Auto run soft wares.

f.) Please check the RAM (Random Access Memory) whether is enough for your computer usage or not, if less, better add bigger capacity of RAM.

g.) Please make sure that your hardware drivers are up to date.

Firefox 4 is winning the browser battle for Some Reason!!!!

Microsoft may have seen fit to boast about the 2.35 million downloads its new IE9 browser received in its first 24 hours, but Mozilla's the latest version Firefox4 has since essentially blown such figures out of the water.

In fact, not only did Firefox 4 claim a million downloads in its first three hours and almost 7 million in its first day --surpassing by far Internet Explorer 9--but by Wednesday, the day after its official release, it had already claimed almost 2% of the worldwide Internet browser market, according to research firm StatCounter.

"Firefox 4 has really hit the ground running and has eclipsed the launch of IE 9," said Aodhan Cullen, StatCounter's CEO.

By Tuesday, IE 9 had taken just 0.87% of the worldwide market; as of Wednesday, even the newly released Opera 11 browser also had a steady lead over IE9, StatCounter reported.

StatCounter Global Stats are based on aggregate data collected on a sample of more than 15 billion page views per month--including 4 billion from the United States--from its network of more than three million websites.

And when all versions of each browser are taken into account, Internet Explorer still leads the global market with 45%, followed by Firefox with 30% and Chrome with 17%. In the US, the sum total of all versions of IE lead the market with 48%, followed by Firefox with 26% and Chrome with 14%.

But Microsoft's Internet Explorer is declining markedly. On a monthly basis, StatCounter figures show a steady drop in IE's global market share from 55% in February last year to 45% this year. Google's Chrome, meanwhile, has risen steadily from 7% worldwide to 17% over the same time period. The official Firefox download counter is available on Mozilla's site.

Firefox recently overtook Internet Explorer as the No.1 browser in Europe as well. The software set a record for the most downloads for a single piece of software with 8,002,530 for Firefox 3.0 between June 17 and 18, 2008. Even that years-old Firefox 3.0 version, interestingly, currently maintain a leadover Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9.

5 Reasons

So, why is Firefox doing so well? And why is Internet Explorer doing so badly, by comparison? There are several reasons.

1. It's Inclusive, Not Exclusive

Microsoft's reasons for excluding the millions of Windows XP users from its latest Internet Explorer release must have been very compelling indeed. They focused, I suspect, on a desire to force those users to upgrade to Windows7 -- to the tune of considerable upgrade fees for Redmond. This, as I've noted before, is one of the joys of life on the Microsoft Treadmill.

I can't imagine, though, that time will prove that decision to have been a good one. For a vendor to exclude such a huge portion of its own installed base just doesn't look good, and that's not to mention all the many Linux and Mac users out there.

Hello? Microsoft: It's no longer a single-platform world out there, no matter how much you wish it were. Mozilla: Thank you for seeing things the way they really are.

2. It's Faster

If you've been using a previous version of Firefox, the fact that Firefox 4's speed is between three and six times faster should be pretty impressive. Thanks in part to the browser's new JagerMonkey JavaSrcript engine, in fact, it delivers huge performance enhancements, including faster startup times, graphics rendering and page loads. Firefox 4 also outdid Chrome 10, Opera 11.1 and Internet Explorer 9 in the Kraken benchmark.

3. It's a Leader on Privacy

It's no accident that Microsoft just recently emulated Firefox 4's "Do Not Track" mechanism, despite the fact that it had already implemented a like-minded feature of its own. Quietly added to Microsoft's own "Tracking Protection" tool, the addition of the new, Firefox-like "Do Not Track User Preference" feature quickly drew accolades from myriad privacy experts.

4. It's Developed by Users

Who's more likely to develop a product users want--the users themselves, or a relatively limited team of paid developers? Yes, that's right--users tend to have a better idea of what's desirable. And look: Firefox was developed in large part by its users--between 30% of 40% of its code comes from the community--whereas IE 9 is just Microsoft's best approximation of what users want.

That, no doubt, is why Firefox offers such an Execellent user experience, complete with a "tabs on top" layout, the "App Tabs" feature, Panorama and Sync.

5. It's More Secure

Hand-in-hand with Firefox's community aspect comes the fact that it's more secure--a feature that tends to be associated with open source software in general. Even Microsoft's much-touted anti-tracking technology has already begun to come under fire.

Because Internet Explorer's code is closed, all the many bugs and vulnerabilities that crop up are fixed only at Microsoft's leisure--which can be laggardly indeed.With Firefox, on the other hand, the code is being scrutinized and improved all the time.

So, would you rather a speedy, privacy-protecting, secure and user-developed browser that you can actually run on your current operating system, or do you want to jump through Microsoft's hoops and pay the price in more ways than one? To be honest, now that Firefox4 is out, I can't really see that there's much of a contest left.

10 ways Linux is making life better

Linux has long played a leading role in the world of servers, due in large part to its stability, security and lower total cost of ownership (TCO). What many don't realize, however, is just how ubiquitous it's becoming in other parts of life as well.

Not only are distributions like Ubuntu helping Linux make great strides on the desktop, but the open source operating system is now quietly powering myriad innovations that many of us take for granted.

Where can Linux be found today? Let's count just a few of the many places it's making life better.

1. Android

First and foremost, of course, is Android,Google's Linux-based mobile operating system. Well-poised to relegate Apple's successful iPhone to the realm of niche devices, Android is giving the popular iPad run for its money as well. By putting Linux in the hands of countless mobile consumers around the globe, Android is arguably Linux's greatest mainstream success to date.

Then, too, there's also Chrome OS, which will reportedly figure prominently in a low-cost notebook PC coming from Asus this summer, among other devices.

2. WebOS

Packed with perhaps as much potential as Android is HP's recent decision to use WebOS on pretty much all its desktops and laptops, not to mention tablets and phones as well. WebOS is, of course, a Linux-based operating system originally developed by Palm. With HP's new strategy, Linux will land on the desktops, laps and hands of countless more consumers as well, giving it another huge boost toward mainstream ubiquity.

3. Niche PCs

Even aside from all the many consumer PCs already running Linux, we're also starting to see the operating system powering niche PCs as well. Take the recently debuted KiWi PC, for instance. Targeting senior citizens, the Ubuntu-loaded machine uses Linux to make computing stress-free for senior citizens. "KiWi PC is powered by an Ubuntu operating system, which generates visible and easy navigation from startup to shutdown," as the device's Web site explains. "The Ubuntu operating system creates a user-friendly desktop, allowing senior citizens to have immediate access to their email and the Internet hassle-free." So much for the myth that Linux is harder to use.

4. Set-top boxes

Though it's not typically visible to the user, Linux is often at the heart of the ubiquitous set-top box that so many of us use for streaming content, for example. The Ubuntu-powered Neuros Link is just one example.

5. ATMs

Windows really isn't secure enough for banking, as many experts have been warning for years, so it's no great surprise to see Linux increasingly used in automated teller machines instead. A project at Brazilian bank Banrisul, for example, has received considerable fanfare.

6. In-Vehicle PCs

Another recently announced Linux innovation is a series of PCs designed for agriculture and construction vehicles. Built for rugged conditions and harsh environments, the Grayhill devices offer a choice of Linux or Windows CE.

Linux has also popped up previously in vehicles including Mavizen's award-winning TT02 electric motorcyle. Then, too, there's the fact that car companies including both Toyota and Peugeot are using Linux as well.

7. Wikipedia, Google and More

If you've ever used Wikipedia, then you've benefited from Linux, at least indirectly. In fact, Wikipedia is now using Ubuntu after years on Red Hat and Fedora. Wondering about scalability? At Wikipedia Ubuntu now reportedly powers some 10 billion page views a month.

While we're on the subject of corporate applications, Google, Amazon, Cisco, IBM, the New York Stock Exchange and Virgin America are all renowned users of Linux, too.

8. One Laptop Per Child

Aiming to create devices that can be distributed to millions of disadvantaged children around the world, the One Laptop Per Child project has built its XO laptops to take advantage of the many freedoms of Linux.

9. Government

In the United States alone, the U.S. Postal Service, the U.S. Department of Defense and the FAA are all among the high-profile governmental users of Linux. Then there are all the many governments around the world that have made similar decisions, including France, Spain, Germany and Switzerland.

10. IBM's Watson

Last but not least, the Watson supercomputer that wowed the world with its performance on Jeopardy recently runs on none other than Linux.

Those, of course, are just a small sampling of all the many places Linux is to be found. Still, taken together, they make a pretty convincing argument for the power of the open source operating system. No wonder more and more businesses are seeing past the myths and switching to Linux themselves.

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When an iOS update fails

Macworld — 

After iOS 4.3 was released, I dutifully attached my iPhone 4 (running iOS 4.2.1) to iTunes and selected to Update. I wasn't expecting any trouble. My iPhone had never been jailbroken or modified in any unauthorized way. I was running the latest version of iTunes. This was a completely mundane task. What could go wrong?

Apparently, quite a bit.

After successfully downloading the update file and initiating an install, an ominous message popped up in iTunes--informing me that the update had failed due to a 1013 error. Adding insult to injury, the message further noted that my iPhone was now in "recovery mode" and I would need to restore the iPhone to get it working again. Confirming this, the "Connect to iTunes" screen was glaring from the iPhone's display.

Uh-oh. While I could see that my afternoon plans were now in jeopardy, I wasn't yet concerned about the ultimate outcome. I would do the time-consuming restore and be on my way.

iTunes had different plans. After clicking to Restore, I wound up with the exact same 1013 error at the exact same point in the installation process. Now I was concerned.

It was time to check Apple's support articles--notably the article that lists the various iOS alert messages and what they might mean. Here I learned the following:

"This error may be the result of the connection to gs.apple.com being blocked, redirected, or interrupted. Adjust your hosts file or security software to ensure that connections to gs.apple.com are not blocked."

Here's what this means: At least with more recent (iPhone 3GS and newer) iOS hardware, Apple requires that iTunes check in with its gs.apple.com server before permitting any update or install. From Apple's perspective, the purpose of the check is to prevent installation of "unauthorized" iOS versions. If iTunes can't reach the server to make the required check, you get the 1013 error. That's what was happening to me.

At this point, I knew why this was happening--and was a bit embarrassed that I had not realized the cause right away. While I had never jailbroken this iPhone, I had experimented with jailbreaking other iOS devices I owned. In particular, mainly as part of research for an article i had written, I had attempted to downgrade the iOS version of an iPod touch. As I explain in more detail in the just cited article, this requires adding a line to the Mac's host file (located in the /etc directory) to redirect iTunes from checking Apple's gs.apple.com server to instead checking the Cydia server or a local TinyUmbrellaserver.

Cisco unveils secure teleworker products

Home access point offering comes with dual 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz bands and works at 500 Mbit/sec 802.11n speeds

Cisco today unveiled a home office wireless LAN access point (AP) along with other wireless gear aimed at helping corporations securely connect teleworkers to corporate networks.

Sylvia Hooks, senior manager of mobility marketing, called the new $419 AP offering unique in that it runs over two bands instead of one.

Using two bands, a teleworker's data can travel uninterrupted over the 5GHz channel, while home-based family systems and devices can work over the 2.4 GHz band, she noted.

The new AP, called the Aironet 600 Series Office Extend, works at fast 802.11n speeds of up to 2.4 GHz.

Cisco also announced a 2500 Series wireless LAN controller for office data centers at companies that use the home AP. The controller is priced from $2,495.

Also, the company added a Wireless Controller module for the Integrated Service Router, priced at $1,195, and a $29,995 Wireless Services Module for the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series switch.

All four products are available in May.

The high-end Wireless Service Module device supports up to 500 corporate and teleworking APs, while the 2500 Series and Wireless Controller module can support up to 50 APs that serve 500 client devices.

The products are designed to be "no hassle for the teleworker," Hooks said, with the home AP requiring only a simple plug-in. Home users get the same quality of service and security of corporate LANs, she added.

Analysts said with the expected growth in telecommuting, the products make sense for Cisco as it moves to round out its selection of wireless LAN offerings.

Aruba Networks has a similar solution, they noted.

"Cisco has more than half the market share in wireless LAN products," said Craig Mathias, a consultant at Farpoint Group. "They are the 800-pound gorilla.

"This set of products helps people work out of their homes, which is good for the environment and good for helping people with time management," he added.

Rohit Mehra, an analyst at IDC, said that IT managers want a secure means for home workers in all kinds of businesses to be able to connect to corporate data securely.

Cisco, Mehra added, has also created the products to be " a simple, easy set-up solution for network access from the home. IT wants this kind of a solution as it extends IT's control of this segment of the network."

10 things to drool over in Firefox 4

With so many new browser releases coming out in such rapid succession, it stands to reason that at least some users are going to need some help figuring out which now works best for them.

Toward that end, I had a chat earlier today with Johnathan Nightingale, Mozilla's director of Firefox development, to get a sense of what the final release of Firefox 4 will bring. Here are some of the highlights of what we can expect.

1. More Speed

With its new JägerMonkey JavaScript engine, Firefox 4 delivers huge performance enhancements, Nightingale told me, including faster startup times, graphics rendering and page loads. In fact, in performance tests on the Kraken, SunSpider and V8 benchmarks, for example, Firefox 4 blew away previous versions of the browser, with performance results between three and six times better.

Firefox 4 also outdid Chrome 10, Opera 11.1 and Internet Explorer 9 in the Kraken benchmark, as GigaOM recently noted. Bottom line: It's blazingly fast.

2. Less Clutter

Tabs are now given top visual priority in Firefox 4 so as to enable more efficient and intuitive browsing. In addition to its new "tabs on top" layout, however, the software now also offers a number of other features to make it simpler and more streamlined.

A Switch to Tab feature, for instance, helps reduce tab clutter by automatically calling up an already-tabbed URL rather than duplicating it all over again. "It took my tab list from 80 to 90 down to 50 or 60," Nightingale said.

"The slowest part of browsing is often the user," he explained. "If you have 200 tabs open and you can't find the right one, that's the slow part

Then, too, there are App Tabs, which allow the user to take sites they always have open--such as Gmail or Twitter--off the tab bar and give them a permanent home in the browser. Then, no matter where the user visits, those tabs are always visible on the browser's left-hand edge. Not only that, but each App Tab's icon glows to indicate when there's been activity on that site, such as new mail coming in.

When Firefox gets reloaded, it boosts loading speed by focusing first on the active page and App Tabs, and then loading other tabs in gradual succession after that, Nightingale explained.

Further reducing clutter is Firefox 4's Firefox Button, meanwhile, which displays all menu items in a single button for easy access.

3. Panorama

Though it began as an add-on, Firefox 4's new Panorama feature is another one designed to battle tab clutter. Using it, Web surfers can drag and drop their tabs into manageable groups that can be organized, named and arranged intuitively and visually.

In previous versions of the browser, users with 20 tabs, for example, didn't have an easy way to separate out the ones that were related. "Some people would put tabs in different windows, but that just moves the clutter," Nightingale explained.

Panorama, on the other hand, now provides a visual canvas on which tabs can be logically organized into groups representing work, home, hobbies or research, for example.

4. Sync

Another new feature that started life as an add-on is Sync, which synchronizes an individual's multiple copies of Firefox across various platforms. So, a user might look up directions to a restaurant from their work computer, for example, and then be able to easily find and pull down those same directions from their Android phone on the road, Nightingale explained.

"Wherever you are, Firefox knows you," he added. "It gives you so much freedom."

For privacy, all such information is bundled on the user's local machine and encrypted before it goes onto the network, he added.

5. Do Not Track

With a single check box, Firefox 4 users can ensure that any time the browser requests a Web page, it will send along a header specifying that the user does not want their browsing behavior to be tracked.

In theory, advertisers and Web sites could disregard such requests, Nightingale noted--as they could equivalent mechanisms in other browsers as well. On the other hand, enforcing them is not a technical problem, he noted. "It's a matter of trust--enforcing on the technical side doesn't help."

What Nightingale hopes is that advertisers and Web sites will use the new capability as an opportunity to show respect for consumers' wishes and to demonstrate leadership when it comes to privacy. In beta versions of the software, he noted, most wanted to learn more about how to comply and get involved.

"I'm keen to see how ad networks and content sites respond," Nightingale concluded. With the new technology enabled, "everyone you're interacting with knows your intent."

6. Under the Hood

A number of other features--some visible to users, others not--will also appear in Firefox 4, including support for the WebM format for HD-quality video; 3D graphics via WebGL; elegant animations through the use of CSS3; and multitouch support.

Then, too, there's super-fast graphics acceleration with Direct2D and Direct3D on Windows, XRender on Linux, and OpenGL on Mac enabled by default on supported hardware.

7. Improved Security

With HTTP Strict Transport Security, or HSTS, sites can now make sure information is always encrypted, thereby preventing attackers from intercepting sensitive data. Previously, a hacker sitting in a Starbucks store, for example, could potentially watch Web surfers enter a bank's home page, which is not encrypted, and hijack them from there, Nightingale noted.

With Content Security Policy, or CSP, meanwhile, Firefox 4 ensures that cross-site scripting attacks can't infect a site such as through its comments section, he added.

I should also note that because Firefox's code is open, it's not subject to any vendor's preset patch schedule. Rather, its security is constantly being reviewed and improved.

8. HTML5

Firefox 4's new HTML5 parser and full support for Web video, audio, drag & drop, and file handling mean that it's capable of supporting the latest Web environments.

9. Multiplatform Support

Whereas Microsoft's IE9 can be used only on Windows--and only Vista and Windows 7 at that--Firefox, as always, is multiplatform. So, whether you're on Windows, Linux or a Mac, you can enjoy its powerful new features.

10. The Community Touch

Last but not least, whereas proprietary browsers such as IE9 are developed by Microsoft's team of paid developers to reflect their own vision of what users want, Firefox has been shaped significantly by the people who use it. In fact, between 30% and 40% of its code was developed by the community, Nightingale told me. It's hard to imagine a better way to make sure a product delivers what users want.

With so many exciting new capabilities, Firefox users have a lot to look forward to in this new release. So, for that matter, do the legions of Internet Explorer users who will sooner or later make the switch

Android 50% faster than iPhone 4 when page is loading

The latest Android smartphone loaded Web pages 52% faster than iPhone 4 running iOS 4.3, according to thousands of independent field tests released today by Blaze Software.

The Web page load times were about a second apart for the two devices in a study that amassed 45,000 load tests in all. For Android 2.3 on the Google Nexus S smartphone using a version of Chrome, the median load time was 2.144 seconds, compared to 3.254 seconds for iPhone 4 on iOS 4.3 running a version of Safari, according to the study.

Blaze used Fortune 1,000 Web sites for the tests, running the Web page loading tests repeatedly over Wi-Fi and 3G wireless connections with nothing else running on the phones at the time. The Android phone was faster than the iPhone in loading 84% of the tested Web sites. "Android wasn't just faster overall, but rather provided a faster browsing experience four times out of five," the study said.

Blaze sought to describe its tests as objective, adding it has no association with Google or Apple "in any form," David Horne, marketing programs manager for Ottawa, Ont.-based Blaze, said in an e-mail. Blaze writes software to automatically accelerate Web site speeds and created a mobile testing tool used in the Android-iPhone study to be able to analyze mobile Web performance and to "discover new optimization to add to our core product," Horne explained.

While Android came out ahead in the load time comparison, the study noted that both are "generally fast." However, the study also noted that " browser speed is a big deal" and had been a prominent point when both Apple and Google recently noted their improved JavaScript engines.

"Browser performance is all the rage, and everybody says theirs is faster," the study added.

The study's authors said they were surprised by the results.

One surprise came because both iPhone and Android had optimized JavaScript engines in their latest versions, but were not much faster than previous versions also tested, Blaze said. "Both Apple and Google tout great performance improvements [with optimized JavaScript] but those seem to be reserved to JavaScript benchmarks and high-complexity apps," the study said. "If you expect pages to show up faster after an upgrade, you'll be sorely disappointed."

Blaze said part of the problem is that the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark, a kind of custom test used by Apple and Google, and other benchmark tests "are very different than real-world sites and don't reflect the actual user experience." Blaze said it measured the load time of Web pages, "mimicking the experience users would get when browsing on their smartphones."

Other testing groups have only compared a small set of sites manually, Blaze said.

Additionally, of the 1,000 sites tested, 175 were customized for mobile access. The iPhone improved the time to load a mobile Web site by 39% over other standard Web sites, while Android improved the difference in the two types of sites by 8%. Still, Android loaded both types faster than the iPhone 4.

Most of the testing Blaze conducted was over Wi-Fi in a home using a high-speed router connected to a fast DSL line, but it also conducted some 3G testing (with nearly 6 Mbit/sec download speed over the Bell Mobility HSPA network) with iPhone 4 running iOS 4.2 this time. In that comparison, it found Wi-Fi was faster in 82% of the cases, but only by half a second.

Blaze's testing apps -- WebView and UIWebView -- used each phone's embedded browser, Chrome for Android and Safari on the iPhone 4, respectively.