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The bottom line: Firefox 5 is a worthy expression of Mozilla's ideals. The browser is competitively fast, sports a new minimalist look, and includes some excellently executed features. Unfortunately, that describes most of Firefox's competition, too.

Review: Firefox 5 is the first version of Firefox released under Mozilla's rapid-release cycle, which means that instead of seeing a new whole-number version once every year or two, you'll now see one every three months. This follows in the footsteps of Google Chrome, which adopted the rapid-release cycle a while ago and is now up to version 12 (at … Read more

Apple may soon be launching a new AirPort Extreme Base Station.

The Federal Communications Commission today posted its test report on a new version of Apple's wireless hardware. Dubbed model A1408, the device is a 3x3 wireless access point operating on both the 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz bands, according to the FCC filing.

Rumors that Apple is planning to launch new wireless hardware have been cropping up for weeks. Leading up to Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month, reports surfaced claiming Apple would be updating its AirPort Extreme Base Station, along with its Time Capsule--the company'… Read more

Getting those Google Maps directions you're viewing on your PC onto your smartphone might soon be as easy as pointing the phone at the screen.

Tsung-Hsiang Chang, a graduate student at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and Yang Li, a Google employee, have developed a system that makes it much easier to transfer certain Web-based computing tasks between devices. To do this, one simply takes a photo of the computer screen that's showing the task. The phone then automatically opens up the corresponding application on the mobile device--at the corresponding stage of the task.

The same process can also work in reverse, moving data from the phone to a computer.

The system, called DeepShot, relies on the fact that many Web applications use a standard format, called the uniform resource identifier (URI), to describe their current states. A typical example of this is the link provided by Google Maps that transfers the exact current location or driving directions to another browser on another computer.

This link consists of a long string of symbols that contain URI-related information such as the addresses of the starting and ending points and codes that indicate their geographical coordinates and the approximate size of the map window. Though URIs are a common feature of many Web applications, the data contained in a URI can vary greatly and is sometimes harder to extract than in the case of Google Maps.… Read more

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany--It's warming up in the Middle East, and as the mercury rises, so does the intensity of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. And that means the number of seriously injured American soldiers passing through here is also rising every day.

Ramstein is known as the U.S. military's gateway to Europe, since it's where most personnel touch down when deployed here, the Middle East, or Africa. It's also part of the Kaiserslauten Military Community, whose 54,000 U.S. citizens make up the world's largest concentration outside the United States. But it'… Read more

I remember the sound of the very first Zvox sound bar, the 325, for one really good reason: it sounded amazing. Zvox still sells it for just $249. The "secret" to the Zvox sound isn't radical new technology or wildly innovative design; no, Zvox speakers are just a lot bigger than most of the competition's sound bars. The 325 is 17 inches wide, 16 inches deep and 4.8 inches high. Yes, folks, when it comes to sound quality, size is a biggie. Zvox speakers always sounded great, but were light on features, the new models … Read more

LONDON--In the future, somebody walking into a hotel room or a museum will get the opportunity to install an app for that location, Adobe Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch predicted.

The idea, which Lynch demonstrated at the Open Mobile Summit here to show just how feasible it is, stems from the ever-tighter links between the physical and virtual worlds we inhabit. And it shows that there's still plenty of room for mobile devices to become even more important in people's lives, as if there were any doubt.

"There's a strong future for us with this social- … Read more

LONDON--Skyhook Wireless, whose technology uses Wi-Fi signals to pinpoint a mobile phone's location, is in something of a tight spot. On the one hand, it's embroiled in a major lawsuit against Google, and on the other, Apple stopped using its services beginning with the iPhone 4.

In other words, the two biggest rising powers in the mobile market are not exactly on the Boston company's side. So perhaps it's a bit surprising that Chief Executive Ted Morgan is as optimistic as he is.

The way Morgan sees it, though, there's plenty of room for … Read more

The introduction of the iCloud at today's WWDC keynote symbolizes Apple's shift to cloud-based backups, syncing, and moving files seamlessly among all your devices, whether you have an iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Mac, or PC. Just like Google's offerings (Doc and Calendar syncing, and Picasa, as examples), iCloud lets you sync media, apps, music, documents, calendars, and more automatically. It's important to note that Android has had the download and sync features since February of this year.

As usual at Apple's keynote events, Steve Jobs was not the only person on the stage demonstrating the latest and greatest from Apple. Phil Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, came up to talk about multitouch gestures on the Mac, for example. Craig Federighi, senior vice president of Apple software, then came up to demo some of the new features of full-screen apps. But when it was time to talk about iCloud, it was Steve Jobs who did the talking. In other words, however you feel about iCloud, it seemed to be the "main event" that Apple seemed to be most excited about.… Read more

As location-based services (LBS) become more and more popular, the debate surrounding privacy grows as well. One popular LBS service, Foursquare, is growing in popularity by the day.

Through this guide we plan to show you how to customize the privacy settings of your Foursquare account; allowing you to reveal or limit as much personal information as you would like. … Read more